How the Quest to Over-Achieve Can Lead to an Unintentional But Inevitable Sense of Failure

A sanguine animation by the insightful School of Life addresses the problem with over-achievement, specifically the depression that hits once a goal is reached. For the over-achiever, it’s the action of getting things done rather than the result and upon completion, a sense of unintentional but inevitable failure can set in.

In other words, over-achievers are trying to solve a range of psychological problems through material or worldly means. …Because success is the moment when over-achievers are likely to notice the doomed nature of their ambition, it is a particularly troubling and dangerous eventuality. …At exactly the point when their work is acclaimed or finds its audience, over-achievers are at risk of severe breakdown.