We like to stress the commonness of heroes. Essences seem undemocratic. We feel oppressed by the call to greatness. We regard an interest in glory or perfection as a sign of mental unhealthiness, and have decided that high achievers, who are called overachievers, owe their surplus ambition to a defect in mothering (either too little or too much). We want to admire but think we have a right not to be intimidated. We dislike feeling inferior to an ideal. So away with ideals, with essences. The only ideals allowed are healthy ones -- those everyone may aspire to, or comfortably imagine oneself possessing.

~ Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag Achievement Ambition Democracy Egalitarianism Equality Essence Glory Greatness Heroes Ideals Inferiority Intimidation Jealousy Mediocrity Overachievers Perfection Pettiness Success

Many of us learned that keeping busy…kept us at a distance from our feelings...Some of us took the ways we busied ourselves—becoming overachievers & workaholics—as self esteem…But whenever our inner feeling did not match our outer surface, we were doing ourselves a disservice…If stopping to rest meant being barraged with this discrepancy, no wonder we were reluctant to cease our obsessive activity.

~ Maureen Brady

Maureen Brady Abuse Survivors Avoidance Avoiding Pain Coping Mechanism Coping Mechanisms Coping Skills Healing Insights Keeping Busy Obsessions Overachievement Overachievers Overcomer Quotes Overwork Recovery Recovery From Abuse Workaholic Workaholism