About This Episode
Welcome to The Overachievers Podcast! I’m Keith Blakemore Noble, your Mindset Master and guide as we seek success without stumbling into burnout. If you’re someone who’s always taking on more, becoming the go-to person for keeping things on track, but inside you’re feeling the weight of all that responsibility, then this episode is for you.
Today, I’m sharing what I call “the overachiever trap.” I’ll be unpacking why our greatest strengths, like reliability and conscientiousness, can sometimes work against us, gradually forming a loop where effort and responsibility increase, pressure builds, and true relief never quite arrives. If you’ve ever noticed that you seem to just keep carrying more, simply because you always have, I invite you to listen closely.
There’s no judgement here, just an opportunity to become aware of where responsibility quietly turns into ownership, and how we can start to notice these patterns in our lives. My aim isn’t to fix anyone – because there’s nothing wrong with you – but to offer the clarity and awareness you need to make more intentional choices about success and wellbeing.
So join me as we explore what’s really going on beneath the surface for overachievers, and begin charting a healthier, more sustainable path forward together.
Key Themes
- The Overachiever Trap explained
- Strengths becoming burdens over time
- Increasing responsibility creates hidden pressure
- Difference between responsibility and ownership
- Importance of self-awareness over blame
If You Prefer Video
Transcript
This is the overachiever podcast for people who want success without the burnout. If you’re doing more than ever, if you’re carrying more responsibility than ever before, and if you’re still not feeling any lighter for it, this episode will help you understand why.
Welcome to the Overachievers podcast with Keith Blakemore-Noble – because success shouldn’t cost everything.
I’m Keith Blakemore-Noble, the mindset master, and I work with people who carry a lot. In episode one, we explored why you are an overachiever, and not just because of external success markers, but because of how you operate. In episode two, we set the theme for this series, that success shouldn’t cost everything, and that pushing harder isn’t always the answer. Today, we’re going to name something that sits quietly under both of those ideas, something that many overachievers experience without realising it. I call it the overachiever trap.
And once you see it, it becomes very hard to unsee. The overachiever trap is not about failure. It doesn’t happen because you’re lazy, doesn’t happen because you’re unmotivated. It doesn’t happen because you do something wrong. It happens because your strengths start working against you. Overachievers tend to be irresponsible, conscientious, reliable, capable. And those qualities help you build things. They help you to progress.
They help you to cope when things are difficult. But under the right conditions, those same qualities quietly form a loop. And it’s a loop where effort increases, responsibility expands, pressure builds, and relief never quite arrives. Not suddenly, not dramatically, gradually. And because this loop happens gradually, it’s incredibly easy to miss. There is a pattern which I see again and again. Someone realizes that life, it feels heavier than it used to. They’re still functioning.
They’re still capable, they’re still delivering. And from the outside, nothing looks wrong. But internally, they’re carrying more. So they respond in the only way that’s ever worked. They take on more responsibility. They become more reliable. They step in sooner. They smooth things over before problems escalate.
And you know what? Externally, this is all rewarded. Things keep moving. Other people relax, progress continues. But internally, for that person, something subtle changes. They stop asking whether something should be theirs to carry. They just carry it. And over time, almost without noticing, they become the person everything depends upon. And that, my friends, that is when the trap is fully set.
Now, take a moment with this. Where in your life have you quietly become the one? You know, the one who steps in or the one who sorts things out, or the One who makes sure everything keeps moving. And you do this not because you are asked, but because you could. So where in your life have you quietly become the one? There’s no judgment here. Just notice where this is happening. Take a moment out just to look back over life and consider where you’ve fallen into this trap. And again, it’s not about blame. It’s not about judgment.
It’s about awareness. It’s about being aware that this has happened. One of the reasons that the overachiever trap is so hard to spot is, is that it looks like virtue. Responsibility looks like maturity, reliability. Hey, that looks like strength and high standards. They look like integrity. And often other people will benefit from these traits. Things run smoothly, problems get solved, momentum is maintained.
So there is very little external feedback that anything is actually wrong here. In fact, you are often praised for exactly the behaviours that are quietly draining you. Sound familiar? This makes it even harder to question those behaviours. Over time, effort becomes automatic. Saying yes becomes the default, and rest starts to feel unnecessary or even uncomfortable. You feel uncomfortable when you rest. And it does this not because you don’t need it, but rather because your sense of identity has quietly wrapped itself around being the one who coped. Here is a distinction that often lands strongly with overachievers.
There is a difference between responsibility and ownership. Responsibility is responding when something needs doing, and that’s a good thing. Responsibility. Something needs doing, you respond, that’s good. Ownership. However, ownership is assuming that it’s always yours to carry. There’s a difference. Responsibility is responding when something needs doing.
Ownership is just assuming. It’s always your job. Over time, many overachievers stop noticing that shift. They don’t ask, is this actually mine to carry? Am I the right person for this? Does this still need to sit with me? Over time, they stop asking that. They just carry it. And it’s not because they’re controlling. Absolutely not. It’s because they are capable.
But capacity without boundary very quickly becomes a burden. And that’s where the trap tightens. You don’t notice this happening over time, gradually builds up and up. Now, the overachiever trap rarely costs you everything all at once. No, no. It’s far more insidious, it’s far more subtle than that. It costs you in small ways that over time build up. You have less mental space.
You have less patience. Over time, you have less emotional range. You might notice that things that once felt satisfying, then I just feel flat. You might notice that it takes longer to recover than you used to do. But hey, that’s just all part and parcel of life, isn’t it? No, it isn’t. You might notice that you’re always on, even when you’re resting. And you might notice that rest feels earned only after complete exhaustion. And because there is no crisis, you just keep going on and on.
You tell yourself, hey, it’s just a busy phase. Or you know what, once this settles, it’ll be easier. Or perhaps the biggest one. We tell ourselves, you know what, after this, I’ll slow down. Yeah, just I’ll slow down after I’ve done this. But the phase never quite ends, does it? Because the way you are operating keeps recreating that phase. Of course it’s never going to end. You keep creating it, building it.
It’s self sustaining. Now, I would like to be very clear at this point, this is not about blaming you for being capable. Absolutely not. It’s not about asking you to lower your standards. And it is absolutely, certainly, definitely not about doing less just for the sake of it. Not at all. The Overachiever trap. It’s not a flaw.
What is it? It’s a natural outcome of being conscientious in environments that reward output but rarely produce capacity. Oh, sorry. Rarely protect capacity. The overachiever is a trap. The natural outcome of being conscientious in environments that reward output but rarely protect capacity. Your thinking worked for sure. It’s what got you here, right? Without the thinking that you have, you wouldn’t have got to where you are. The problem isn’t that the overachiever trap exists.
The problem is that it’s still running unchanged at a stage of life where the costs are higher. Thinking the way you thought got you to where you are. Absolutely no bones about it. But it’s also keeping you where you are. When you want to move on, you need to change the way you’re thinking. You can’t move forward with the same thinking that got you to here. In the coming episodes, we’re going to slow this down even further. We are going to explore why rest feels so uncomfortable.
We’re going to explore how responsibility will quietly expand. We’re going to explore when high standards turn into self pressure. And we’re going to explore why doing more often stops working. Eventually, sooner or later, it stops working. And remember, none of this is about fixing you, because there is nothing wrong with you. It’s simply about giving you enough clarity, enough information, enough awareness to be able to choose differently if and when you want to.
So as you move forward, I’d like to invite you to hold this question gently where in your life are you carrying more simply because you always have done? Where in your life are you carrying more simply because that’s the way you’ve always done it? You don’t need to change anything yet. Just notice what happens when you consider this question.
Notice what it stirs within you. Remember, no blame, no judgment. Don’t have to change anything. Just ponder where in your life are you carrying more simply because you always have? And just notice what comes up for you over the next week, notice where responsibility has quietly become ownership. And again, no fixing, no judgment, just awareness. So over the next week, start to notice where responsibility has quietly become ownership. Thank you for listening to the Overachievers podcast. In the next episode, as I said before, we are going to explore why rest feels so uncomfortable for overachievers.
And we’re going to look at what’s really going on underneath all of that guilt. If you enjoyed this, please do give us a Like a Comment a Share subscribe subscribe to us on your favourite platform. Give us a comment there. Share it with your friends. Pass the word around. I’m Keith Blakemore-Noble, the Mindset Master, and I will be your guide as we explore a healthier way to to succeed.
