The Anxious Achiever

Blog & Newsletter Archive

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Don’t let The Voice ruin your life

You’ve probably had the experience of hearing a voice in your head saying you’re not good enough. That’s The Voice. Maybe The Voice says “If you just work hard enough, you cannot fail. So work harder.” It may feel like it’s your voice, but it’s not. It’s The Voice… and it does not tell the truth.

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Make 2023 the Year of Protecting Your Boundaries

It’s so important for leaders to understand their own boundaries and those of their team, especially in times of anxiety. When we know our boundaries, we can set limits. “The notion of a limit is like the line that you want to try and observe, being careful not to cross,” said Dr. Harley. “It’s what you are or aren’t willing to do, or what you are or aren’t willing to tolerate.”

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Climbing Back From Post Partum Anxiety

My talk with Cara McNulty became an intimate discussion about maternal mental health, and what it feels like to be a career-driven mother with anxiety. Dr. Cara McNulty is leading CVS Health’s strategy to expand mental health services and resources, and she has a powerful platform to help improve access to mental health care for millions.

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Vote for Mental Health! (Podcasts)

I am so proud of the impact The Anxious Achiever has had on the conversation about our leadership and our mental health. And so I'm asking you to vote for the Anxious Achiever in the Signal Awards’ “Best Commute Podcast”.

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How to Harness the Best of What Anxiety Has to Offer

Dr. Bonnie Hayden Cheng studies how anxiety can be useful for us at work. That’s right: anxiety has something to offer! It can be useful. If you’re anxious about layoffs as we head into the end of the year (and who isn’t in this economy?) take heart: You can use your anxiety to do great work.

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How Do You Define Toxic Workplace Behavior?

McKinsey research finds that one out of four workers indicate they experience high levels of toxic workplace behavior. That’s shocking. In all 15 countries and across all dimensions assessed, toxic workplace behavior was the biggest predictor of burnout symptoms and intent to leave by a large margin —predicting more than 60 percent of the total global variance. Take a minute to think about that.

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College Admissions: Achievement and Anxiety

College admissions haunts me, and my children aren’t even in high school yet. It is a bubbling cauldron of anxiety for students and their parents, born out of the toxic combination of the pressure to achieve, social comparison, financial means, and sheer willpower.

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Finding the Right Work Fit When You're Neurodivergent

It’s hard to be different, and being neurodivergent can make it hard to succeed in many workplaces. Some who are neurodivergent struggle to get hired, and some struggle to stay or advance in an organization. It takes work to find the right place and to build the right infrastructure to support yourself as you progress in your career.

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Perfectionism Vs. the Pursuit of Excellence

We use the term to describe our greatest achievers, but in reality, perfectionism is a thought pattern or behavior that demands “of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance, in excess of what is required by the situation. It is associated with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other mental health problems.”

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When Perfectionism Backfires

This week’s podcast interview is the story of a homeless teen who channeled her anxiety into perfectionism with incredible academic and athletic achievement – but at enormous cost to her body and her mental health. I love this interview, and you will too. It’s the first of a two part series on perfectionism.

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Grief Doesn't Respect Office Hours

Grief is just one thorny emotion we try to erase from the office environment. But when we deny people their feelings at work, we deny the empathy and trust that build strong teams and good relationships. We force a grieving person to fit into a mold that they simply may not be ready for.

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Does Your Boss Reward Anxiety?

Do you ever feel that success requires – demands! – anxiety? Anxiety is contagious within systems; when the anxious leader gets rewarded, teams copy their leader’s anxious behaviors. Guess what happens then? Everyone becomes anxious!

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The five essentials for a mentally healthy workplace

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy today released a new framework highlighting the critical role that workplaces play in promoting the mental health and well-being of workers and communities. This week’s podcast is our discussion about five evidence-based essentials that help organizations develop mentally healthy policies and practices.

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How to Make Good Decisions When You're Burned Out

While some stressed out leaders react to anxiety by agonizing over a decision and putting it off, others do just the opposite and make hasty decisions. It can be an enormous relief to move the needle on a project, get something off your plate, or feel like your stress is now someone else’s problem. But of course, the very definition of an impulsive act is one that’s carried out immediately, with no forethought and little or no regard for the consequences.

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Becoming Radically Yourself

Lochhead is known as “one of the best minds in marketing” – and now I know why. Lochhead told me he felt like he just never fit. But he understands something essential: his neurodivergent brain is his greatest asset. Lochhead unlocked how to soar in big jobs and make his difference work for him. Talking to him unlocked a crucial puzzle for me as an entrepreneur.

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When You're An Anxious Parent

It's Mental Illness Awareness Week, and the theme is "What I Wish I'd Known." I wanted to share what I wish I'd known about managing an anxiety disorder as a new parent.

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Managing Your Team’s Anxiety

Being a manager requires having conversations that feel intimate and discomfiting. The key is to remember you’re not alone. It’s not your job to be the office therapist and you don’t need to show up with solutions when a team member is struggling. Sometimes, you just need to show up.

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What Drives You To Achieve?

It’s often impossible for us to meet the expectations we set for ourselves. It’s also impossible to meet the expectations we think others have set for us. We spend a lot of time racing against our own expectations and what we perceive to be other people's expectations. Anxiety happens when expectations are out of balance, ungrounded.

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The Guys At The Top Want To Change

Adam Baruh is a CEO rewriting the rules of what a CEO talks about. He’s working with the mess of midlife- the legacy of a divorce on the kids, the extreme stress of providing for people, poor decisions along the way, and long repressed childhood trauma that caused him shame for decades.

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