Introduction
Welcome to The Overachievers Podcast, for those times when achieving everything is still not enough.
You hit the target. And within days, sometimes within hours, there is a new target standing exactly where the old one used to be. Nobody moved it deliberately. It just seems to have always been there, waiting.
Most overachievers call this ambition. And there is some truth in that. But behind the language of ambition, there is something quieter, something less comfortable going on.
In this episode, we look at what the moving goalpost actually looks like from the inside. We take a few scenes that will probably feel very familiar, and we look at them clearly enough to see the pattern for what it is, rather than simply living inside it.
Key Themes
- When reaching the target brings no relief
- The promotion that was supposed to feel different
- A strong year that still feels like not enough
- Achieving keeps happening, arriving doesn’t
- Why this is a pattern, not a personal failing
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Transcript
This is the Overachievers Podcast for people who want success without the burnout. You hit the target and within days, sometimes within hours, there’s a new target standing exactly where the old one used to be. Now, nobody moved it deliberately. It just seems to have always been there waiting. Today we’re not going to solve that. But what we are going to do, which is just as important, is we’re going to look at it properly. Because most overachievers have never actually seen this clearly enough to realise that it’s even there. Welcome to the Overachievers Podcast with Keith Blakemore-Noble.
Because success should Hello, welcome back. I’m Keith Blakemore-Noble, The Overachievers Coach, and in the previous episode, we looked at why finishing something can feel more dangerous than leaving it undone. Today, we’re staying close to that territory, but we’re turning it to something slightly different. What happens after you do finish, after you do reach the thing you were aiming for? What happens when that happens and the relief you expected just isn’t there? If you haven’t already, give us a follow or subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening on. It’s the easiest way to make sure that you don’t miss any episodes. So Excuse me. Here is the pattern in its simplest form. You set a target, you work towards it, often for a long time, you reach it, and almost immediately a new target appears standing in exactly the same place the old one used to be.
Most overachievers would describe this as ambition, always wanting more, always pushing forward. And yeah, there is some truth in that, but… Behind the language of ambition, there is something quieter, something less comfortable going on. Today, we’re just going to look at a few examples of what this actually looks like from the inside. See how many of these resonate with you. I will start with a classic example, nothing to do with business, but it’s one you may have experienced in life. You go out hill walking. There’s a hill you you decide you’re going to climb it, walk up it, climb it, get a great view from the top. So you’re walking up the hill, walking up the hill, you see the top, you see the summit’s getting closer and closer and closer, and you reach that summit, only to realise it’s not actually a summit at all, it’s a shoulder, the summit is the next rise up.
All right, let’s do this. We thought we’d get a glorious view, maybe the glorious view will be at the summit. So you carry on climbing again, climbing again, walking up, walking up, getting closer closer and closer to the summit. You reach there and find it’s not actually the summit. There’s another bit to go. And so you keep going, you keep going, you keep going. Every time thinking this is going to be it. Every time you get there and every time it’s not because there’s more.
There’s another bit to climb. Sounds familiar? Hey, that happens in life. It happens in business. It happens everywhere. And let’s take a look at some examples of exactly how that might happen for overachievers achievers like your good self. First one we’ll look at is the promotion. So picture this, picture the promotion. It took years to reach this promotion.
This was the promotion that was going to be the marker. Once I get this promotion, things will feel different. I will have made it. It’s going to feel so good. So you work really hard, possibly for years, Chasing this promotion. And then one day, one day you get there. You’ve got it. You have achieved that promotion.
Yes! And within a few weeks, the celebration, the relief, it’s already faded. There’s a new title now and a new set of expectations sitting behind that. A new level above the one that you’ve reached. A level that you hadn’t previously noticed because you hadn’t reached the level required to be able to see it. And so the process begins anew. The promotion happened, the feeling it was supposed to deliver didn’t happen, or if it did happen, it left faster than anyone could have warned you about. How about this one? If that previous one doesn’t ring true with you, doesn’t resonate, how about this one? The target. Picture the target that you have set for yourself professionally.
It could be a number, it could be a result, it could be a milestone that feels genuinely ambitious when you write it down. This is it. This is the target. This is what I’m working towards. Whatever that number, whatever that result, whatever that milestone, qualification, whatever it is, you have set that, it’s genuinely ambitious. You’re working hard towards it. It’s going to be such an achievement when you hit that target. And one day you hit it.
Everything you have done enabled you to hit that target. Hey, Maybe you even hit that target a little bit earlier than planned. Even better. And then, before the achievement even has time to properly register, there’s a new number in its place. Slightly higher, slightly harder, but a new number in its place. The version of you that set the original target would have been thrilled to have made that target. The version of you that actually reached the target, you barely even paused to notice you’d achieved it before you start marching on to the next target. That thrill, the sense of achievement, the elation, The, this is it, I have made it, that you were striving for never arrives.
You don’t even give it a chance to arrive because you’re already working toward the next target. Because the next target is going to be the one, right? Until you reach it. Or what about this? The Year. For this one, I’d like you to picture an entire year, not one single moment, but an entire genuinely strong year, which by any measure, anyone seeing it would see it is a genuinely strong year. Results are up. Recognition has been earned. Things that look from the outside like clear and obvious success, right? Somehow, at the end of this amazing year that looks fantastic to others from the outside, the feeling underneath, the feeling behind all of this, it isn’t satisfaction. The feeling is actually closer to— Disappointment.
Still not quite there yet. It’s as though the year happened to someone next to you. The actual finish line is a little bit further along. It’s unreached, exactly the same as it was 12 months earlier. Is this familiar at all? This is the pattern in its clearest form. Achieving Happens. Arriving doesn’t. There is a very specific kind of exhaustion that comes from all of this, and it’s not the exhaustion of working hard.
It’s the exhaustion of never getting to actually set the effort down. It’s the exhaustion of reaching things that were supposed to be the reaching point and finding that reaching point has already moved further on. Achievement keeps happening. Yes, the sense of having arrived somewhere, that keeps not happening. Next time, next achievement, that’s when it’s going to feel so good. The bar keeps moving. And there’s a reason the bar behaves this way. And it’s not something that we’ve got room to open up properly in this particular episode.
We just don’t have the time for it. However, it is exactly the kind of pattern that we’re exploring this month in the Overachievers Club. We’ve been looking a great deal more depth into it inside the club, a lot more than we can go into in just this podcast episode. We’re spending the whole month looking at that. But for now, it’s just worth naming what’s actually going on here clearly rather than continuing to call it ambition and leaving it there and letting it just carry on marching ahead of you. So if any of these 4 scenes have felt familiar, here’s something to think about. This is not a personal Failing. It’s not a sign that you don’t know how to feel satisfied or that you’re somehow built wrong.
What’s happening is closer to the pattern working exactly as it was built to work. It’s doing what it was supposed to. The bar was never going to stay still, not because you keep choosing to move it, But because staying still isn’t what this particular pattern does. Now, yeah, I get it, that doesn’t fix anything on its own, but it’s a very different thing to be exhausted by a pattern that you believe you’re simply failing to feel. Sorry, I’ll say that again. It’s a different thing to be exhausted by a pattern Than it is to believe you’re simply failing to feel what you should already feel. Awareness is the first step towards changing anything. And being aware of this difference, being aware that this is a pattern, it’s not you failing to feel what you should already feel.
It’s a pattern. And that pattern keeps moving ahead of you. Just being aware of that is a great first step. You can start spotting it and start working accordingly. Or check out the Overachievers Club. As I say, this month we’re going into a lot more depth on that. That’s it for this episode, a short episode, but I felt it was important for us just to, just to take a step back and have a look at some examples of what we’ve been talking about. Just to help you put it into context.
Next time, in the next episode, we’re going to look at the pattern behind the pattern. That is the approval seeking that often sits behind all of this. That’s going to be episode 28, Approval Seeking in High Performers. That’s coming up in the next episode. But for now, here’s what I’d like you to notice from this. Next time you reach something that you’ve been working towards, watch closely and observe what happens. In particular, notice how long the satisfaction actually lasts before the next target quietly takes its place. Hey, if today’s episode resonated with you, it would mean a lot to me if you left a review or a rating on your favourite platform.
It helps other people to find this show. Also, what helps is sharing it. Share the show with someone you feel would benefit. And of course, if you haven’t already, hit follow, hit like, hit subscribe so that you are here for every episode. Once you’ve done that, head over to KeithBN.link/TOP. You’ll find all of the episodes of the Overachievers Podcast. You’ll find this episode. And within that, you’ll find the show notes there, which go into a bit more detail.
and which have some additional resources which you might find interesting and worth exploring. I’m Keith Blakemore-Noble, the Overachievers Coach, and I’ll be your guide as we explore a healthier way to succeed.
