(R)evolution of the overachiever 💥
I wrote a thing for myself that I want to share with you.
I hope it resonates.
via GIPHY
Once upon a time, you wore your talents like pajamas.
You lounged and stretched and relaxed into them.
You did what you loved, what was easy and fun.
You excelled at things - most things - you tried,
and your excellence was a given, especially to you.
*
Then you noticed that They noticed.
That your successes pleased and piqued Them,
And that They would lavish praise
and pluses
and satin ribbons
and glossy trophies
and features in the local paper,
and moments in the spotlight,
and so many hugs, pats, and smiles upon you,
when you won.
They loved to watch you push and pull,
all the way to the top.
And so, you set to winning.
You won spelling bees
speech contests
piano competitions
swim meets
A+ after A+ after A+ after A+
you won the solo
the award
the essay contest
the election
the valedictory address
the scholarship
the promotion
the top spot
again again again again.
You won so much, it became Who You Are.
It became Who You Had To Be.
*
And yet.
The wins somehow never added up.
Never even counted.
Turns out what They wanted even more than your win
was to get you to push for the next one.
They loved to up the ante,
to raise the bar.
They loved to make you strain and reach.
And so They frowned when you paused to rest,
when you let anything be Good Enough,
when you simply did what you loved
and did it well
and let it be easy
and let it be yours.
That’s Not How This Works, They said.
Couldn’t you do even better, with discipline?
Couldn’t you work harder? Smarter?
Going Above and Beyond is no achievement, They whispered.
For you, little star,
Above and Beyond is the baseline.
*
And now
here
four and a half decades into this life
your eyes widen to realize -
actually, to REMEMBER -
Above and Beyond is indeed your baseline.
Extraordinary is Who You Are, without trying,
without pushing or pulling or proving.
Excellence comes easy, especially
when you lounge and stretch and relax into your talents.
When you do what you love,
what is easy and inspired,
what flows,
what helps and heals,
what ripples out, rather than reaches up.
When you look beyond Them.
When you trust you are more than enough.
When you see you are plenty.
When you reclaim your star power,
use it to fuel yourself, and your contributions
to a world that lets us Be.
From there,
you see that all those bars They had you reaching for,
all those bars They kept raising,
only ever built you golden cages.
And that you
and We
can do so much better than that.