How to Overcome Achievement Addiction
As a child, I lived in an abusive household during my teen years. It was exhausting but one of the hardest parts about the abuse is how it’s manifested into my adulthood. Throughout my entire adulthood, I have struggled with limiting beliefs as well as difficult mindset blocks that have kept me in a very low place. One particular vice I have had is trying to overcompensate for what I am not or my insecurities. This eventually manifested as achievement addiction.
Growing up we are all taught from a very early age that achievements are important, for some they can become so crucial they become tied in with their sense of self-worth. While this can be healthy in one way it can be extremely toxic in other ways.
Achievement addiction is when you are consumed in looking for the next best accomplishment. This is when a person's drive to achieve becomes so great that other areas — family, love life, health, and leisure — are neglected in the effort to achieve more and more
Here’s how you know if you have achievement addiction:
Do you often have a sense of scarcity of time — not enough time in the day, or days in the week to get things done?
Do you feel like you have to use to-do lists and time-saving devices to keep up?
Do you often rush to eat in order to get back to the task at hand?
Do you consider sleep a treat or luxury instead of a requirement?
Do you have difficulty enjoying idle time?
Do you struggle to make time for fun?
Is it difficult to find balance (i.e. do you combine work and leisure, or take work with you on vacation)?
Do you have intense energy?
Are people often asking you to slow down?
Do you often go from one accomplishment to the next?
Do you have a strong drive to excel?
If you answered yes to more than not you’re likely struggling with achievement addiction.
For me my biggest eye-opener was I could no longer relax or enjoy life if what I was doing at the moment wasn’t something I considered “productive” or “earned” by a completed to-do list!
This is when it hit me and I started to dig deep about this. What I came to learn was that Achievement addiction has become more prevalent now due to social media and our constant desire to prove ourselves and compare selves to other people. It’s a defense mechanism. This addiction to success, like other addictions, can also be a way of hiding from emotions. Lastly, we are often conditioned by society to prioritize hard work and productivity and in many positions, we are rewarded because of it.
The problem is much like sex or drugs the addiction never satisfies itself this is why we must master the addiction by replacing it with self-care and healthy achievement.
While it may feel exhausting and you likely already feel defeated the good news is it doesn’t have to take over your life.
So let’s discuss how you overcome achievement addiction:
Identify what you want to accomplish- that which is reasonable!
Create milestones and appreciate the progress you are making, but take time to reward yourself with some downtime.
Compare your progress to YOURSELF only
Build-in boundaries (reframe your rest and create a boundary between work and play). This is important to draw a clear distinction between you and what you’re working on.
Create balance in your life (delete, delegate, do)
Affirm yourself reminding yourself that you are enough with or without achievements
When you have accomplished this celebrate yourself. Do not try to rush and jump into the next task
Please note this is not me at all trying to push you away from achievement. Healthy achievement can be both rewarding and fulfilling. But when our self-worth becomes dependent on ever more impressive achievements that’s when we need to take a step back and take care of ourselves.
