Lots of my clients are ‘Hyper-Achievers,’ according to the Saboteur Assessment those participating in my Peak Resilience Accelerator course take. We often first discover this in the free one to one Saboteur Discovery session they have with me. This means they often have certain assumptions about success that are hard to overcome.
‘Hyper-Achievers’ will hit their targets, but then set ever higher goals, never quite enjoying the sweetness of each goal as it’s reached.
It is absolutely exhausting and, as a Hyper-Achiever myself, and three books later, I completely identify. It’s been a Saboteur I’ve had to make headway on myself in order to help my clients make gains.
But it involves questioning assumptions about success.
Do ‘Wins’ Always Need to be Worked For?
As I’ve leaned into challenging these Saboteur thoughts, I’ve had to question the validity of my assumptions.
The biggest one of mine being: ‘Things only get done with hard work.’
One exercise I ask my clients to carry out is to write a list of ‘wins’ they had that were completely out of the blue. Wins that weren’t a hard slog to reach.
If this sounds familiar, ask yourself:
- What ‘assumptions about success’ do you have that may not be completely true?
- What would challenging those assumptions with actual evidence give you?
- When have those assumptions been proven false?
For me, this started by realising the most lucrative piece of work I ever won came through a recommendation from a mentor that made me the ‘obvious’ choice to the client.
Indeed, though internationally prestigious, I had never even heard of the organisation. I was hardly slogging away beating down their door for the business!
For Marsha, another Hyper-Achiever, this exercise was hugely valuable.
When she created the list, she saw how many of her biggest wins didn’t come from her ‘slogging it out’ at all.
Wins Are Cumulative
This means some of Marsha’s assumptions about success had been totally wrong!
These wins included being headhunted for roles she hadn’t applied for. Others were being asked to lead teams Marsha had previously thought too big for her. Another win involved being asked to present for her department at events she would have loved to have attended – let alone been a presenter for.
She talked me through her list and so I asked what this all meant for Marsha.
She laughed: ‘It means I’ve done the hard work already.’
Marsha continued: ‘I’ve networked, I’ve delivered well for my teams and I’ve mentored great talent who now recommend me to the new organisations to which they move.’
Talking through her assumptions about success, she could identify multiple opportunities she’d had because her reputation had preceded her.
It was a realisation Marsha had never owned as a feeling before.
This felt like a light-bulb moment, and a recognition she could take her foot off the pedal and enjoy what she’d created.
Things indeed didn’t always need to be so hard!
Sometimes, the Best Opportunities are Unexpected
In short, question some of your assumptions about success.
Marsha’s realisation reminded me of the research that shows that people with high Positive Intelligence scores, the type we are growing in the PRA, enjoy greater success at work and higher salaries.
If you’d like to enjoy the types of financial and career progression successes that people with higher Positive Intelligence scores enjoy, I’d love to help you set up a PRA group for your workplace. Get in touch with me at .
