Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "The Journey: A Calendar Book"

January has come to an end, and with it a wintry weather filled month; wind, snow, ice, rain. The month held the gamut of expected seasonal weather, and there's still plenty of winter left.  For me it's refreshing and invigorating, and certainly just an aspect of mid-west living.

Our reading for January 31st comes from "The Journey: A Calendar Book",

"Care about your performance, but enjoy yourself" (James, 2012).

Throughout my years as a high school teacher, college instructor, and psychotherapist; I've seen plenty of individuals who create their own stress by being so obsessed by their performance they fail to enjoy their lives; overachievers if you will.  Being an overachiever is by no means a negative attribute to possess, unless one overachieves at overachieving;  worrying so much about succeeding they end up loosing the ability to "dance" throughout their life.

Overachievers do it all; play multiple sports; belong to multiple clubs, and hold officer positions in all of them; volunteer at the area food bank, nursing home, and hospital; and manage to do each of these activities well. Perhaps this scenario is somewhat exaggerated, but the truth is more and more individuals today are becoming caught up in the trap of overachieving. Overachievers have plenty to put on a resume to be sure, but they pay a price. They lose a sense of balance, and the consequences can be severe.

Overachievers are often spread quite thin. With only so many hours in the day and so much energy and effort to give, you have to divide your attention among a number of endeavors if you over schedule your time. When you feel pressure to excel in every area, you may lose the chance to discover a genuine personal interest or talent as you attempt to master all
your activities. Consequently, you are likely to lose sight of what you truly like and to get less enjoyment from the things you do.


The workload and time constraints of the typical overachiever leave relatively little time for sleep. In fact, sleep deprivation is common among over scheduled individuals, with many of them sleeping less than six hours per night. Excessively busy people tend to suffer from poor eating habits, as well. If you don’t have the time to sit down to three solid meals per day, you may have to grab food on the go, and such diets are often full of fats and sugar. We all need sufficient sleep and nourishment to stay physically and mentally strong, so if you have too much to do, you may end up sacrificing your health.

Overachievers often base their feelings of self-worth on their accomplishments. The more they do, and the more they do well, the better they feel about themselves. Reliance on external validation,though, can be extremely harmful. If you focus on the trappings of success, you can lose sight of your inner identity. Over-achieving frequently causes overachievers to forget self-worth is measured from within rather than by what others think or say.



If you’re an overachiever, beware. More is not necessarily better.

Care about your performance, but enjoy yourself, and always, keep looking up.  :)  AJ