When Success Doesn’t Feel like Enough: Therapy for High-Achieving Adults

Did your algorithm happen to give you a video about how achievement doesn’t feel like something to celebrate because you’re obligated to achieve things because you know you can?

Or maybe you’ve been labeled gifted and talented since before you reached double digits in age and that has warped your perception of success and now you don’t know how to feel like what you’ve done is enough?

Are you burnout and exhausted by a never-ending to-do list or the benchmarks you’re constantly changing for yourself?

High-achieving adults can have a very complicated relationship to success and achievement, carrying stories developed in childhood from school and sports/activities or attaching self-worth or value to external achievements from your circumstances along the way.

You may have the experience of connecting with people, over and over, who appear to care more about your achievements than they do about you as a person.

You might work and work and work until you collapse into bed at night because even with awards or promotions or a high salary, everything culture and people told you were important, something is missing or doesn’t feel right.

You’re definitely, absolutely, not alone in these feelings as a high-achiever.

Success can feel empty in light of feelings of loneliness, of burnout, of disconnection, of the feeling of losing yourself along the way, of unsteady confidence, the weight of perfectionism, the panic or crisis of “not enoughness”.

However, success doesn’t always have to feel like not enough, you don’t have to continue to feel like not enough, nor do you have to explore these heavy narratives related to success alone.

Therapy at The Orchard can support you not only in unpacking success and achievement, but unraveling half-truths (or more likely untruths) you may be carrying around about your self-esteem, self-confidence, ability to care for yourself in stress, your ability to connect with others, and so much more.

You don’t have to give up on your dreams, goals, projects, or work; it’s not all or nothing. There’s a way to heal, shift, and grow into managing external achievements and internal feelings.

There’s a way to learn how to measure success differently and more meaningfully, allowing you to stay far away from burnout, manage stress and anxiety, and have a kinder relationship with yourself.

Dr. S