By Rachel Godfrey
You might be surprised at the high percentage of high-achieving entrepreneurs, whose unique combination of traits or habits that accelerate their success early on, later find these same traits eventually become what hold them back.
They’re often the source of chronic stress, overwhelm, burnout, and plateaued revenues.
- often feeling overworked and undervalued
- constantly under pressure to deliver in tight deadlines
- regularly on the edge of burnout
- constantly stressed and overwhelmed
- surrounded by people who disappoint you and don’t meet your expectations
- apprehensive about more responsibility because you’re barely coping as is
Here are five common harmful habit addictions we’ve observed in high-achieving entrepreneurs:
1. The Human Doing
This behavior presents when you only feel “worthy” or like “enough” when you’re being productive, useful, or valuable. If you’re not busy (over)achieving, you feel lazy, worthless, or like you’re wasting time. You’re addicted to being busy and incapable of switching off—ever. This can impair recovery, creativity, problem-solving, and long-term resilience.2. Completion Addiction
You never give yourself permission to be fully present, in the moment, at peace, or in harmony with life—until ALL to-do lists are complete, all unfinished business is finished, all problems are solved, and all unanswered questions are answered. You can’t stop thinking about a topic or project until you have closure, it’s signed off, over, and done!
3. Over-Attention to Detail
Perfectionism is the antithesis of high performance. It’s an impossible standard and often stems from being afraid to make a mistake or look like a fool.4. Overthinking and Overanalyzing
This habit is also driven by the fear of being judged or criticized, as well as the fear of failure. Now you have an endless list of “What ifs.” You “need” certainty and predictability, which simply doesn’t exist. You need to know what’s going to happen, when and how—before it even happens!5. People Pleasing
The final high-achieving trait we see often is when you’re constantly saying “yes,” but you wish you could say “no.” You don’t have clarity on your boundaries. Even if you did, you’re constantly violating them and your standards to avoid upsetting people, as well as your fear of being judged or criticized again. You struggle to say “no” without massive guilt and without ruminating over previous experiences.These bad habits lead high-achievers to obsess over the minutia. You constantly feel the need to prove yourself or justify your position. You regularly get stuck in your head, ruminating, and worrying, trying to make everything perfect.
When you have a high tolerance for pain and stress—which you do because that’s part of every business owner’s DNA—you can achieve a lot in your career … BECAUSE of these traits. But they can only get you so far.
After a certain threshold, the workload, stress, and overwhelm become too much, and you max out. What got you here won’t get you there. It’s time to be as successful personally as you are professionally.
You'll never break through your glass ceiling if you stay addicted to these habits and the old identity that drives them.
How to Break Harmful High-Achieving Habits
We all have blind spots that prevent us from seeing the forest for the trees. And two big influences on how you view your world are:1. Your Relationship With Yourself
Stop making self-worth conditional. You wouldn’t accept your child based on passing an exam or tidying up their room, so why do we make our own self-worth conditional on looking a certain way, earning $X amount or achieving something big?Most high-achievers react when they hear this and think, “If I do that, I'll lower my standards, become complacent or drop the ball,” which is a false assumption.
2. Your Relationship With the Future
Life is uncertain! We never know what’s going to happen next. But we humans have a built-in need for certainty—and there lies the problem.We want to know what, when, and how “it’s” going to happen, which is futile and exhausting. Forward planning is important, but not overplanning. When people have poor relationships with uncertainty, they tend to have control issues, completion addiction, and chronic worry.
So, stop trying to control the uncontrollable. Understand (and accept) that the answer to every question about the future is still, “I don’t know.”
By putting these two influential foundations in place, the five bad habits of high-achieving entrepreneurs naturally dissolve—by themselves!
You'll no longer be in a fight against yourself, and your natural strengths become enhanced. Your previously harmful habits have now created space for healthy, high-achieving habits to take their place.
