I admit it. I am an overachiever. It's a side of me that's hard to ignore. It shows up everywhere--in personality tests, self-assessments, my astrological sign, and even in tarot card readings! To make matters worse, I'm the product of a Taiwanese American immigrant family run by a black belt-level, master Tiger Mom. Yes, I'm that stereotype, too.
I spent the first ten years of my life after college racking up accomplishments: the Teach for America teacher who exceeded expectations every year, straight A Master's student at Harvard, Fulbright scholar who took it upon herself to co-write a manual for fellow grantees, and the nonprofit director of three different full-time education programs. None of these accomplishments were merely to feed my self-esteem. I was on a mission to close the achievement gap in every public school or district that I worked in.
I managed my teams with the same degree of perfectionism and focused on doing as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Working in public schools, I felt like every second wasted was detrimental to a child's success in life. My team had big goals, long meetings, lots of processes, and massive to-do lists.
At some point along the path, something started to shift in me. I didn't have a heart attack or a health crisis from the stress. I just looked myself in the mirror one day and really didn't like what I saw: an unhealthy, Type A, goal-driven person who moved too fast and always felt behind.
[For more of this story, written by Belinda Lu, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...ng-ov_b_6209888.html]
Comments (0)