Recovering Overachiever

I just found out my blood type matches my personality type: A+

I’m a recovering overachiever. Some of you know what I’m talking about: The student with the constant, enthusiastically raised hand, that the teacher gets tired of calling on. The person who wants to make everyone happy and get everything right.

But that’s not very realistic, is it? And it can be destructive to ourselves, our progress, and our relationships.

Once, in third grade, my class had inside recess on a rainy day. For fun, the teacher put an eighth-grade math problem on the board and challenged us to solve it. As usual, up went my hand, and this time she calls on me. Stepping to the front of the classroom, I write out my solution, but didn’t get it right. I guess my teacher thought it part of the fun to punish a third grader for getting an eighth- grade problem wrong, so she slapped my calves with a yardstick. I’ll never forget the shame and embarrassment. Throughout my life, every time I got something wrong, or made a mistake, it felt just like that third- grade experience.

Sometimes we need to adjust our expectations! Hence, the “recovering”.

Recover by accepting what we cannot change (like other peoples’ happiness, our own shortcomings and failures), by having the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Aspire, Adjust, Aim, Alter, Admit, Agree, Accept, Affirm, Achieve, Accomplish, Attain.

Alliterations intended.

Now that’s A+.