Why High Achievers Are So Afraid of Happiness
Help! Nothing’s wrong!
How do I relate my success to satisfaction and happiness? Am I chasing something meaningful or just “something”? The more I sit with these questions, the more I have to challenge myself and realize: I’m not really happy with being happy.
It sounds odd, but in my own personal development work (and in my coaching work), I’ve grown to appreciate a really important paradox: high achievers are uncomfortable with real, meaningful achievement.
We’re like dogs chasing a car — we wouldn’t know what to do if we caught it.
This sounds a little far-fetched but, let me tell you, I see it time and time again. I watch highly driven executives finally get to their next big win and what happens then? After about two seconds of celebrating, a new and often bigger anxiety creeps in to ask “what’s next?”
Let’s unpack this idea a bit, because by understanding what’s happening here we might just be able to do something about it.
We’re All Telling Ourselves a Story
While I’m talking about high achievers here, you could just as easily say “perfectionist” or “overachiever.” Not exactly the same ideas, but a lot of overlap. And all have one thing in common: like everyone, there’s…
