The Hidden Cost of High Achievement: What Your Body Might Be Telling You

By Leah Livingston, Founder, Transform with Leah

We live in a society that rewards and uplifts over achieving. The harder we work, the more accolades we receive. The more we sacrifice time with our families and neglect our mental health, the higher we can climb on whichever ladder we’re scaling up. Resting is lazy. Productivity is worthy.

The challenge with this mindset is that it’s not only limiting, but it’s flat out wrong. The law of gravity says that what goes up, must come down. 

So why is it that we expect ourselves to always be better today than yesterday, day after day after day, and expect that to be a trajectory we can sustain? 

I’m not against goals…heck, I’m a coach. My job is to help my clients set and achieve their goals. But those goals have to be: 1) Realistic, 2) Achievable, and 3) Moving us in the direction of healthy outcomes.

(Spoiler alert…most goals don’t fit this definition!)

The Signs

Typically, high-achieving individuals such as ourselves are willing to sacrifice what we need in order to attain a goal, position, promotion, accreditation, or desired outcome. 

• We easily push aside much-needed time with family and friends for a few more hours of work. 
• We get into a habit of deprioritizing downtime, to the point of not knowing what downtime looks like anymore. 
• We find ourselves constantly plugged in, available, giving and doing, answering emails and trying to keep balls from dropping.

Meanwhile, our bodies are slowly starting to give us warning signs that it’s time to take a break. 

Usually, this shows up with feeling tired, sluggish, or just not rested most of the time. You can get a good night’s sleep, but wake up still feeling tired. You notice you’re not as sharp or efficient as you used to be. 

But alas…we persevere. We caffeine up, put on our big girl/boy pants, and keep hustling.

Other times, our body will start to signal us with little whispers of overwhelm. That feeling when little things start to feel like big things: 

• The idea of unloading the dishwasher sets off anger or frustration or resentment. 
• Something you used to love doing at work now feels like a chore or makes you cringe when thinking of getting it done. 
• Folding and putting away the laundry feels like a daunting uphill battle.

But alas…we persevere. We assume we’re just getting lazy or bored in our role. We strive to add more to our plate, instead of taking a few things off of it to relieve the overwhelm. 

We continue to hustle.

The Cost of Over Achieving

Ask yourself this…when was the last time you had a good night’s sleep? You get ready for bed, konk out, sleep through the night and wake up feeling pumped about the day ahead. 

If this sounds like a far cry from the sleep you’re getting, this is your body’s way of letting you know that something is off and needs your attention. 

That the hustling isn’t working. 

Yet…we persevere. We make excuses for the crummy sleep instead of heeding the warning sign from our incredibly intelligent and intune body. We tolerate, we negotiate, we medicate.

For me, I was able to ignore the chronic and oftentimes debilitating fatigue. I was even able to ignore or medicate through sleepless nights. What got me? The brain fog:

• It started small with losing little words while talking to clients. 
• Then it grew into having to reread emails a few times to understand what my team needed from me. 
• Eventually, I was unable to problem solve and think on my feet (which was my entire role as a software implementation program manager). 
• I even started forgetting my nephews’ birthdays and neighborhood kids’ names. Scary stuff, my friends.

All of these signs and symptoms are signals from your brain and body, begging you to slow the heck down and allow the law of gravity to apply to your daily outputs (what goes up, must come down).

The Consequence

These “costs” may feel very familiar. It may sound like the exact thing you’ve been wrestling with for months, or even years. Some of it may resonate, but you’re denying that those whispers are there. Maybe none of this sounds like you, but you’re thinking of someone in your life that this describes to a “T”. 

The reason I’m so passionate about this topic is because the consequences are real. The cost of pushing to or through burnout is high, and as Carl Jung so beautifully put it,

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Unresolved burnout (aka chronically pushing ourselves past our limits or capabilities), in any form, leads to complex and severe health issues. 

Stress is the #1 killer in the U.S.. Studies prove that chronic stress leads to cardiovascular disease, auto-immune conditions, adrenal fatigue, infertility, thyroid issues and even cancer. If you want to geek out on the reality of what stress does to our bodies, check out “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky.

Not only will the constantly-improve mindset lead to stress-induced health issues, but it can impact your entire life in a number of ways:

• Decreased view of self-worth and self-image
• Depression and/or anxiety (which effects everything in your life)
• Weight gain/loss, hair loss, skin issues
• Decreased or completely absent libido
• New addictions (shopping, drinking, over-eating, over-exercising, dopamine-seeking)
• Failed relationships and marriages
• Loss of job, responsibilities or demotion
• Isolation, anger outbursts, and self-defeating behaviors (all of which hurt your family and loved ones)

Honestly, this list could go on for pages. This isn’t intended to scare you or be overzealous. These are some of the most real and impactful consequences of ignoring the signs your body is trying to show you. How do I know? I experienced most of them, and I watch my clients walk very similar paths.

The Shift

Now that we’ve established the cost and consequence of constantly pushing yourself, let’s shift into how to get out of it, or even avoid it altogether.

Sure…get better, be better, do better. But then also allow for a plateau or even a decrease in your productivity to offset the upward trajectory you’ve been managing for so long. 

And you might be thinking “oh, well, I have vacation planned, so that’s when I’ll allow my energy to come back down.” Sadly, this doesn’t cut it. 

You know how it goes…it feels like it takes more effort, time, and energy to prepare for vacation than to have not gone at all. And don’t get me started on what it’s like to catch up when we return (my inbox has how many unread emails…all of which are urgent and important?!?)

Vacations are indeed necessary for health, so please plan them and fully unplug while you’re “OOO”. 

But there’s more to this. You need to rest, recharge, and refuel every day to help maintain a trajectory of success.

So, what does this actually look like? Well, you know when your computer freezes up, or God-forbid, you get the blue screen of death? What’s the first thing we do (other than call our trusty IT guy)? We turn off the machine. 

The Solution to Over Achieving

When in doubt, reboot, right?! Well, the same goes for our minds and bodies. We need to unplug (aka take downtime) to realign with our natural and grounding energy. 

Anne Lamott put it so very simply: 

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

Here are three simple ways to make this happen…which you can absolutely do, because you’re a high-achiever (wink, wink):

Fix #1: Unplug…daily. 

• This doesn’t have to be a monumental event. 
• Even just taking 5 minutes between meetings to close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, sip some tea, whatever sounds soothing…do that. And do it often. 
• (BONUS TIP: You can even do 30 seconds of deep breathing during a meeting to help offset the effects of that stressful conversation.)

Fix #2: Check yourself…and your goals. 

• If you’re a high-achieving professional, you likely have annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals, typically organized in two categories: professional and personal. 
• Take a good look at your list. Are your goals realistic? 
• Are they achievable? 
• Are they aligned with what YOU truly want for your life? 
• Are they bringing you joy, or leaving you feeling less-than, behind, guilty, or unqualified? 
• If our goals don’t check the above boxes, they’re likely hurting us instead of helping us.

Fix #3: Schedule your downtime…weekly. 

• High achievers are often driven by their calendars. For me, if it makes my calendar, I know it’s getting done. 
• So I started scheduling my downtime. 
• This can look however you need it to. No specific activities, no set amount of time. 
• But for at least 2 hours every week, you should do something that has nothing to do with achievement or success. 
• You’re not beating your prior run time, or excelling your golf game, or training for a half marathon. 
• This is time that fills your soul, calms your mind, and rejuvenates your body. 
• You should feel energized after doing this thing. More connected to yourself, your higher power, and the Earth. 
• Here are a few examples of what downtime should (and shouldn’t) look like:

Many of my clients struggle to define what this would look like for them when we first meet. If that’s you, I’m more than happy to help you get started. 

The Wrap Up

So, while achieving, succeeding, and goaling are important, we have to fuel ourselves for this type of work. 

When we don’t, we run the risk of running this beautiful engine on empty. And after a while, you’ll find yourself stalled out on the side of the road (aka burnout). 

Try the techniques above to get ahead of the burnout, get ahead of the physical ailment, get ahead of the failed relationship (these are real outcomes when we don’t prioritize ourselves and our health!). 

Be just as proactive about your health as you are about your career. When our minds and bodies are healthy, everything else in our lives will follow suit.

Here’s to your health and happiness…and success!

Leah Livingston is a Certified Holistic Wellness Coach, Trauma-Informed Coach, and advocate for holistic wellness as the key to living with vitality. She is the founder of Transform with Leah, helping clients create lasting transformations through holistic health and wellness coaching. Leah also serves as a wellness coach for Christine Centeno, founder of Simplicity Wealth Management, where she supports the development of an energetic, aligned, and purpose-driven business.