The Overachievers

The bestselling author of Pledged returns with a groundbreaking look at the pressure to achieve faced by America's teens In Pledged, Alexandra Robbins followed four college girls to produce a riveting narrative that read like fiction. Now, in The Overachievers, Robbins uses the same captivating style to explore how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. During the year of her ten-year reunion, Robbins goes back to her high school, where she follows heart-tuggingly likeable students including "AP" Frank, who grapples with horrifying parental pressure to succeed; Audrey, whose panicked perfectionism overshadows her life; Sam, who worries his years of overachieving will be wasted if he doesn't attend a name-brand college; Taylor, whose ambition threatens her popular girl status; and The Stealth Overachiever, a mystery junior who flies under the radar. Robbins tackles teen issues such as intense stress, the student and teacher cheating epidemic, sports rage, parental guilt, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that students are driven to suicide and depression because of a B. With a compelling mix of fast-paced narrative and fascinating investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.

Does your inner drive keep you up all night? Discover methods to ease your ambitious mind into a healthy, highly productive pattern of sleep. Do you toss and turn worrying about tomorrow’s to-do list? Does your body crave rest but your brain won’t shut down? Have you tried all the recommended bedtime tricks and found no relief? Insomnia specialist and clinical psychologist Anne D. Bartolucci, Ph.D. has spent more than a decade helping results-driven people catch some z’s. Now this fellow overachiever is here to show you a simple way to get the restorative repose you need to fuel your busy lifestyle. Better Sleep for the Overachiever is a thorough guide to creating a lifelong habit of healthy, rejuvenating slumber patterns to help you perform at your peak. Drawing on Bartolucci’s extensive experience, you’ll discover why insomnia isn’t just a nighttime problem—it’s deeply intertwined with your daily thoughts and activities. Using simple strategies to identify and defuse stressful behaviors, you’ll soon be drifting off to dreamland! In Better Sleep for the Overachiever, you’ll discover: - Step-by-step tips and best practices to wind down in the evening - Why perfectionism and imposter syndrome stifle quality sleep and how to overcome them - The time management skills needed to let go and allow your mind to settle - An exploration of the role that mindfulness plays in managing racing thoughts - Real-life case studies, conversations from Bartolucci’s practice, and much, much more! Better Sleep for the Overachiever is an easily accessible handbook to help you snooze like a pro. If you like expert advice, practical techniques, and proven research, then you’ll love Anne D. Bartolucci’s life-changing resource. Buy Better Sleep for the Overachiever to get the rest you deserve tonight!

It's time to stop. It's time to break the rules. Join speaker and coach Heather Whelpley as she shares her life-changing journey to let go of proving, pleasing, and perfecting-and guides you to do the same. Through a seamless blend of vulnerable, heartfelt stories and practical tools, you'll discover why you go into overachieving perfection mode and learn how to: Quiet the inner critic-and reawaken your true inner voice Reconnect to your body Reclaim your joy Redefine success on your own terms Reset boundaries and say no An Overachiever's Guide to Breaking the Rules is more than a personal development book. It's an inward journey to free yourself from the weight of perfection and start living your truth.

Do you feel trapped by your own plans, expectations, and priorities? As a CPA, successful entrepreneur, consultant, volunteer, husband, father, and martial arts enthusiast, author Bill Reeb knows first-hand how easy it is to let your own goals and ideas keep you from moving forward. He’s spent years analysing the roadblocks he regularly encounters in his own life, in addition to the obstacles that he sees his high-achieving clients struggle with on a daily basis. Drawing on his experience as a leading business consultant and his years of martial arts training, Reeb developed a logical and dynamic process for getting more out of life and avoiding the pitfalls that are often part and parcel with a high-achievement mind set. Being “stuck” takes on many forms, from simply failing to change course when you know you should, to circumstances that are complicated by family commitments and financial constraints. Reeb’s process of replanning, reprioritizing, and reaffirming is flexible enough to apply to any barrier, big or small, that you run into. Rely on the advice and tools in this book to help you: Determine what drives you Recognize the early signs of being “stuck” Learn to work “better” instead of “harder” Balance conflicting priorities Set boundaries Manage your time Align what you think with what you do Move past roadblocks Derive a greater sense of fulfilment from what you take on in life

Were you ever advised to "just relax" before making a big speech? Don’t. From Texas A&M professor and celebrity advisor, Dr. John Eliot, this insightful guide takes a sledgehammer to what most of us think we know about doing our best. Eliot explains how mainstream psychology moves us in the wrong direction when it comes to stress management and performance enhancement; techniques like visualization and goal setting, based on pseudoscience rather than empirical evidence, often get in our way rather than propel us forward. Drawing on field-tested experiments and extensive research in neuropsychology, Eliot shares why these “common sense” strategies tend to come up short for the majority of people—and how, instead, great accomplishments are more likely to result from "Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket", "Thinking Like a Squirrel", and "Embracing Butterflies As a Good Thing". These counterintuitive practices not only trigger your full natural talent, but also teach you how to thrive under pressure, not dread it. OVERACHIEVEMENT incorporates Eliot’s work with Fortune 500 companies, Olympic athletes, renowned surgeons, military pilots, and Grammy-winning musicians, providing you with a powerful combination of inspiring stories and life-changing tools, offering the skills needed to overcome stress and rise above your peers in the boardroom, on the playing field, or in the normal day-to-day of life.

A New York Times Notable Book A Daily Beast Best Book of the Year A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year From elementary school on, Walter Kirn knew how to stay at the top of his class: He clapped erasers, memorized answer keys, and parroted his teachers’ pet theories. But when he launched himself eastward to an Ivy League university, Kirn discovered that the temple of higher learning he had expected was instead just another arena for more gamesmanship, snobbery, and social climbing. In this whip-smart memoir of kissing-up, cramming, and competition, Lost in the Meritocracy reckons the costs of an educational system where the point is simply to keep accumulating points and never to look back—or within.

For as long as you can remember, you've worked hard to be the best. Now you're thriving in a busy career, running your own business or quickly climbing the corporate ladder. However, instead of being satisfied with your progress, every achievement adds more stress and complexity to your life. You're beginning to doubt that the phrase "I'll be happy as soon as..." will ever be true. For thirteen years I've coached over three hundred talented, driven professionals who faced the same challenge. This experience has taught me that there's a better way to live. In The Overachiever's Dilemma, I'll help you understand why having a "Type A" personality makes you feel like you're running on a treadmill, unable to slow down long enough to catch your breath. More importantly, I'll introduce a simple system that's helped hundreds of professionals grow their careers and actually enjoy their hard work