A young student, with ambitions of continuing to higher education in the future, bursts into tears after getting an essay back from their secondary school teacher. The grade, 9+ out of 10, is fine, but looking at all the correction marks, the student is horrified. The essay has all the same mistakes the teacher has just highlighted as being the most common.
This true story may be several decades old, but the phenomenon of overachievement is as common as ever.
Overachievers are typically very demanding of themselves, setting the bar extremely high.
“For some, overachievement is a way to compensate for their insecurity”, says Emilia Kujala, psychotherapist, social psychologist (MSSc) and non-fiction writer. She is also the author of a book on overachievement and creator of a self-care programme for overachievers, available in Finnish and Swedish at MentalHub.fi.
Kujala will be speaking about overachievement in the FSHS’s Study Ability Day webinar “Suorittajan mieli” (‘The mind of the overachiever’) in November. Please note the webinar is in Finnish.
She says that up to a certain point, having strong self-control can be a good thing. For example, those who gain entry to higher education are typically more likely to be the overachieving kind.
But there are downsides, too.
“Overachievers tend to suffer from burn-out. Relationships can also be hard if you think that you need to face everything by yourself and you don’t know how to lean on others,” Kujala says.
She adds that for some people, being overly responsible can turn into underachievement. Students can even end up quitting their studies if they’re too scared to take exams for fear of failure.
Stop trying to achieve certainty
So what can you do if you see signs you might be an overachiever? Kujala says that overachievers can, to some extent, learn new coping mechanisms to replace overachieving.
On the other hand Kujala emphasises the importance of self-understanding and acceptance. The tendency to overachieve is something that can be hard to conquer entirely.
“Fighting the underlying neurobiological dimensions is pointless. I like to compare it to being a tall person who’s unable to become shorter. But you can accept the cards you were dealt and stop trying to achieve certainty through your achievements.”