Do you have too much of a drive to succeed?

Some of us lack the inherent drive to work out, exercise, or be healthier. But what if you are a classic Type A person and  you actually have a strong drive? Is there such a thing as too much of a drive? Absolutely, training, fitness and wellness is all about balance. Just like a Type B personality might not have enough drive to do anything consistently, we have seen plenty of Type A personalities that are enslaved by their goals and routines. If something does not work out, they get mad and angry at themselves or whatever interrupted their routine. For those people it is sometimes hard to go with the flow, find the balance of making room for life’s challenges.

What causes the drive?

1. Fear of failure: If they miss their routine they are afraid, they will fall off the wagon and fail at their goals.
2. Performance addiction: They know they are good, they know they can achieve something and they expect the most of themselves.

Why is too much drive a bad thing?

For starters, it can interfere with a simple thing: happiness and enjoyment of what you do. If someone is performance or failure driven their focus is always on accomplishing or avoiding one or the other. It is hard to smell the roses and enjoy the actual process of what they do. Feeling good is often only associated with not failing or the next personal record, the next success. Once the success sets in the next thing has to be accomplished.\

Secondly having too much of a drive actually can lead you to fail after all. If you don’t listen to your body and push through every pain and ache that you are feeling, you regularly cut sleep short, etc. Your body will fail you. We need time for recovery in order to get stronger, fitter, lose body fat, etc.

What can I do if I am going into overdrive?

Be compassionate with yourself. Be aware that all of us go through similar situations and remind yourself of the fact that it is a journey, that life throws stuff at you that you won’t like. These situations are all opportunities to put meaning into, learn something from it and move on. A training plan, or a life plan are not set in stone but rather guidelines that need to frequently readjusted to reality. I love the guideline 80/20%. It is so fitting. If you get 80% of your life on track that is pretty darn awesome and more than many will ever accomplish. True athletes and achievers in life know that there will be failure, sickness, fatigue, family, etc.. If you are in overdrive with your training you will lose on another end like family or friends. The same goes for your job or anything else you do.   Have an awesome day, Michael