This article is about two things that high achievers don’t do, that keeps perpetuating their anxiety. First things first, the number one reason. It may seem like such a no-brainer, but the number one reason why high achievers overachievers keep perpetuating anxiety is because they are not taking care of themselves. They’re not taking care of themselves first and they’re putting everyone else before themselves, putting everyone else’s needs before them.
The thing is, anxiety comes from your body. It comes from your body within your body and if you are not taking care of the very, very basics, you are going to feel more anxious because you, as a human, are a biological, physical, energetic, emotional, mental spiritual being.
If you don’t even take care of your very, very basic needs, you’re gonna start to fall apart. You’re going to be less resilient. You’re not going to have the basic things that you need to operate and function like a normal human, which is gonna make you constantly spiral out and act out in feelings of anxiety, panic and things like that.
When I say you’re not taking care of yourself and putting everyone else first, I’m literally talking about basics like getting enough sleep, drinking water throughout the day and eating breakfast. I cannot tell you how many high achievers come to me that don’t even eat breakfast. They just wake up and roll out of bed in the morning.
First thing they do is start checking their phones and start checking their emails. They have two cups of coffee and don’t even eat anything until it’s almost noon, or they just eat like half of a banana. No wonder you feel so fucking anxious!
You haven’t even taken care of your most basic needs. You literally rolled out of bed, didn’t check in with yourself at all and you’re already off to the races to answer your emails and take care of everybody else. You barely even give yourself a glass of water. You just brush your teeth, wash your face, hit the fucking Nespresso and you start drinking coffee.
When you don’t take care of your basics, you’re going to feel that sense of anxiety all the time. I know it seems so simple, but seriously, if you’re not even taking care of the basics, this is probably one of the main reasons why you are perpetuating anxiety.
The number two reason. Well, there’s a lot of other reasons, but here’s one other reason why high achievers continue to perpetuate anxieties. They don’t ask for all the details or set boundaries before taking projects on.
Why is it that here we, as high achievers, are so eager to say yes and just take everything on? It’s because we want to be seen as the best. We want to get that promotion. We don’t want to be passed up. We want to make sure that they see us as a high performer and they see us as reliable.
We don’t want to be passed up for assignments, projects and opportunities, so we just say “yes.” We don’t even ask for details. We’re like “yes, yes, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”
Next thing you know, you don’t ask for these details, you’re not setting any parameters or any expectations and then you end up overwhelmed. You’re working hours that you shouldn’t even be working. You’re answering emails and working on projects way into the evening. You’re pulling an all nighter for a project that you don’t have to pull an all nighter for, then you end up totally burnt out and maybe even resentful, because you’re stuck doing something that maybe you don’t even want to do. It ends up taking away more energy and bandwidth that you anticipated.
That’s on you. That’s something that you are doing to yourself, because you are not asking for those details and because you are not setting those boundaries. You’re getting stuck feeling overwhelmed and burned out. You have a million things to get done on top of all of your normal responsibilities and then you’re just on that hamster wheel of anxiety. This is why we end up with so much looming anxiety all the time. We don’t even realize that it’s because of all these little things that add up throughout the day, week, month, year and so forth.
What can you do to reduce your anxiety?
We do all of these things in the first place, or rather we don’t do all of these things in the first place, because we have our own deeper underlying fears of rejection and not feeling good enough. Because of our own upbringing, narratives or fears we may have, because we’re running on autopilot and we’re running on that auto programming, we don’t even realize that we’re just abandoning ourselves.
We don’t take care of ourselves. We just take on projects without asking for all the details, because we’re actually being driven by this deeper underlying issue that we have around- never feeling good enough, being afraid of rejection, being afraid that we’re not going to be seen or being afraid that we’re not going to be valued.
Then we do all of these things and we constantly compromise ourselves. Then we are on that hamster wheel of anxiety. Until you get to the root of these narratives, issues and stories, you’re always going to be on that hamster wheel of anxiety. It really is that simple.
A lot of times our anxiety is not coming from these crazy deep places. It’s usually just showing up in the things that you’re not doing, and it’s oftentimes really as simple as you not taking care of yourself, setting boundaries or asking for details before you take on projects.
If you would just do that, you would have so much less anxiety, but you don’t end up doing that because you’re not addressing your underlying root issues around you- not feeling good enough and your fear of rejection.
In order to truly get to the bottom of your anxiety, you have to actually start taking care of yourself. You have to start asking for details and start setting boundaries, but you also have to get to the root of this deeper underlying programming that is driving you to keep behaving in this way.
That is where somebody like me comes in. That is what I do with my clients. We get to the underlying stories. We get to the root of it.
We get to the bottom of these limiting beliefs. We get to the bottom of where this all comes from. That way, you nip it at the root, and then we slowly start to reverse the way that we show up and the next thing you know, my clients who have had years of anxiety, reverse that shit in weeks, days and months.
I can give you all these tips and tricks and all that, but until you get to the root of it all, you’re just going to be patching it up and bandaging along the way. If you want true freedom, if you want to tap into your true potential and really take yourself to the next level, you’ve got to do the inner work. That’s when somebody like me comes in.
If you’re ready to take that next step and you’re ready to really do something about your anxiety, fear of rejection and feelings of never feeling good enough, check out my free training.