Overs!

January 13th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

I have news for you!

Conventional wisdom calls upon us to be our best, perfect, and that that makes us productive. Well, apparently, that ain’t true. So say researchers from Georgia Tech, University of Florida, and Miami University in “Is Perfect Good? A Meta-Analysis of Perfectionism in the Workplace” published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

I’ll let them speak for themselves:

The answer to the question ‘Is perfect good?’ is that in total, perfectionism is likely not constructive at work. The consequences of high levels of perfectionism, especially failure-avoiding perfectionism, for employees do not appear to be equally counteracted by its advantages. The equivocality of
the perfectionism-performance relationship coupled with the consistent negative relationships between perfectionism and mental well-being indicators provides compelling evidence regarding the
net detrimental effect of perfectionism for employees and organizations.”

All that to say, there seems to be no relationship between actual performance and the perfectionism typical of overachievers. I.e., constantly striving to be the best performer doesn’t make you the best performer.

Julia DiGangi, neuropsychologist, recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal:

Each New Year, we pledge to transform our bodies, improve our careers, organize our homes and develop new hobbies. We dedicate ourselves to doing more—more exercise, more work, more activities and social engagements. On its face, striving for more sounds pretty good. But it also has a dark side that we need to resist.“

She labels it the “overs”: overworking, overachieving, overthinking, overexplaining, overgiving, overcommitting. and overaccommodating.

They‘re a form of nervous-system regulation. When you feel anxiety, stress, frustration or uncertainty, it’s because threat networks in your brain have activated: You’re afraid. To restore balance, you engage in compensatory behaviors designed to alleviate your fear. You may think, for example, that you overwork so your boss won’t get mad at you, but the deeper explanation is that you overwork to relieve the stress you feel in the face of that prospect.“

But this is a vicious circle that carries serious costs in terms of mental and physical health.
The brain can create powerful cravings that perpetuate our overfunctioning. Studies have shown that anxiety and depression are part and parcel of perfectionism. Overachievers also have higher levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter related to both motivation and addiction. The brain can create powerful cravings that perpetuate our overfunctioning—the more you overfunction, the more you want to overfunction.

It only creates problems within and without. More problems. And more.

My heart, it quakes within me ….
Fear and trembling, it comes on me ….
I said, “Who will give to me wings—
like a dove I would fly away and I would rest.
Behold, I would flee to be at a distance;
I would lodge in the wilderness.
I would hasten to a place of refuge for me,
from the rushing wind, from the tempest.”
Psalm 55:4–8

There is only one place—one Person—to go to for respite and rest.

I—upon God I will call
and Yahweh, He will deliver me.
Evening and morning and midday,
I complain and I am agitated, and He hears my voice.
He will redeem my soul in peace from my battle ….
Psalm 55:16–18

And only one thing to do to alleviate our load.

Cast upon Yahweh your burden and He—He will sustain you;
He will not forever allow the righteous to be shaken.
But You, God—You will bring them [enemies] down to the hole of destruction;
…. but I—I will trust in You.
Psalm 55:22–23

No more “overs”!

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal; Journal of Applied Pscychology