Quotes & Sayings About Overachieving

I think that a lot of the drive to have overachieving children is defensive - the idea of making sure your child is fully armed against all the other kids, whose parents are busy packing their little brains with facts so they can claw their way into the Ivy League over the broken bodies of their classmates. While — John Scalzi

Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving. — Lois McMaster Bujold

While Daniel disappeared into his room, probably to limn the contours of some exquisite constellation of philosophical nonsense for his internship applications and gasp in the throes of his overachieving OCDness. — Michelle Hodkin

Have you ever had an experience where, had things turned out just a little bit differently, your entire life would have been transformed?

Like a Supreme Court clerkship, a Rhodes Scholarship gets mentioned in your obituary.

The door was open just a crack, in a way that seemed to say "I have an 'open door' policy, but I really don't want to be bothered."

Success didn't take you off the treadmill, but simply put you on a different treadmill, at a higher speed and with a steeper incline.

When we're young, overachieving, and unstoppable, we all think we're special. But as we grow older, we reach a more realistic understanding of our place in the world. It happens at different times for different people, but eventually we all come to terms with our own ordinariness. — David Lat

Miles was ... the thing is, he was afflicted with a severe birth injury. He grew up pretty much crippled, so he poured all his frustrated energy into his intellect. Since the Vorkosigan family motto might as well be, Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving, the effect was pretty frightening. And it worked for him, so he did it some more. — Lois McMaster Bujold

Even though I was manically overachieving and involved in everything, I still never felt like I belonged. That's definitely affected my whole life and why I wanted to become an actor and tell people stories, because communication and feeling like you belong is such an integral part of our social fabric. — Penelope Mitchell

I want to beat them. Even though I'm not cool, or strong, or just, or beautiful, or cute, or pretty, I want to beat the cool, strong, just, beautiful, cute, and pretty people. Even though I wasn't blessed with talent, even though I'm stupid and have a bad personality, have bad grades, am misguided and am a good for nothing, I want to beat the talented, smart, likeable, overachieving people. I want to beat those with friends when I can't have friends. I want to beat the people who work hard when I can't work hard. I want to beat the the victorious people when I can't win. I want to beat the happy people when I'm miserable. Even if I'm hated, even if I'm despised, even if I'm useless, I want to prove that I'm better than the main characters! — NisiOisiN

Depending on the year or the therapist he was seeing, he'd learned to ascribe just about every facet of his character as a psychological reaction to his parents' fighting: his laziness, his overachieving, his tendency to isolate, his tendency to seduce, his hypochondria, his sense of invulnerability, his self-loathing, his narcissism. — Jeffrey Eugenides

That overachieving, ambitious, nobody-can-hold-me-down attitude I had, which came from a place of anger and aggression, has transformed into feeling like I will take on the world, but I will do it with an embrace, rather than with my dukes up. — Christina Aguilera

Why do adults think every girl who isn't some overachieving nitwit needs to be reassured about her intelligence? Folks, my self-esteem is just fine, thanks. I may not be school smart, and I may do extremely stupid things sometimes, but I know I'm smart. And I'd give me some serious Vegas odds to kick the ass of Sarah Scholar at life-skills moral combat any day. — Rachel Cohn

I was that overachieving, annoying kid who was always trying to win some contest or win the role. I look back on it now and I'm like, "Chill, man." Calm down. — Mary Elizabeth Winstead

I work my hardest at everything. That's just achieving, not overachieving. — Michele Jaffe

Would you rather have an overachieving 3-Star, or an underachieving 5-Star? — Bret Bielema

I am overachieving at aimlessness, I am a type-A, alpha-girl lollygagger, the leader of a gang of heartbroken kids, running wild across this lonely strip of amusements, each of us smarting from the betrayals of a loved one. — Gillian Flynn

People who get to the top of any organisation are generally dysfunctional human beings who are overachieving, overcompensating or overbearing. — Guy Browning

The stereotype of the supercrip, in the eyes of its critics, represents a sort of overachieving, overdetermined self-enfreakment that distracts from the lived daily reality of most disabled people. — Jose Alaniz