{"id":474354,"date":"2026-10-23T09:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T09:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474354\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T09:26:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T09:26:43","slug":"achievement-is-not-toxic-our-view-of-it-is-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474354\/","title":{"rendered":"Achievement is not toxic, our view of it is \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Achievement<\/a> <\/p>\n

Meryl Streep\u2019s Miranda Priestly<\/a> may be pop culture\u2019s most popular workaholic. What\u2019s not to admire? She is powerful, successful and has high expectations for herself and for those around her. Her job encompasses her life, yes, but it also fulfills her. Yet, she\u2019s demonized for it. Literally \u2014 she is The Devil Wears Prada<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the rise<\/a> of mental health awareness, prioritization of self-care<\/a> and pushback<\/a> against achievement culture in recent decades, there\u2019s a growing belief that being accomplishment-driven and participating in \u201chustle culture\u201d is negative, categorizing people as unhealthy workaholics with skewed priorities and low self-worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this is true to some degree, it isn\u2019t the whole story. High achievers\u2019 drive for accomplishment and productivity isn\u2019t inherently unhealthy; rather, it\u2019s the culture we\u2019ve developed that produces workaholics and burnout. It\u2019s possible to be a high achiever without being a workaholic \u2014 in fact, it is necessary for our well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a workaholic can go from work as a coping mechanism to work as a way to create impact, then I think that is a high achiever,\u201d said Samantha Lane, time-management coach and founder of Present & Productive <\/a>and Origami Day<\/a>. \u201cIt takes a little bit of reworking to know how we can protect our ability to continue working and enjoy our work, and even show up better.\u201d<\/p>\n

High achievers prioritize<\/a> work that aligns with their values. Studies show that people who are excited<\/a> about their work have a greater sense of purpose. Pursuing the things that are important to you boosts<\/a> your confidence; the pursuit of mastery<\/a> boosts mental well-being. Just because you enjoy working hard and putting effort into your passions doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re engaging in toxic achievement. In many ways, self-care can be toxic<\/a> as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would say that absolutely everybody needs some sense of achievement, and that in fact, if you\u2019re not getting a good sense of achievement, it\u2019s going to get in the way of you feeling fully self-actualized,\u201d said Dr. Kirsten Bradbury, licensed clinical psychologist and associate professor of instruction at UT, who teaches the undergraduate studies course Burnout Prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Bradbury mentioned that in Maslow\u2019s hierarchy<\/a> of needs, achievement is second from the top and is needed to fulfill our potential. A lack of balance is not due to striving for achievement, but often reflects a lack in fulfilling the needs below achievement.<\/p>\n

However, high achievers can tend<\/a> to become workaholics. Achievers<\/a> love to get stuff done, and when they tie their self-worth to their output, it\u2019s easy to feel guilty when they\u2019re not working. Especially in the United States, toxic achievement culture is driven<\/a> by capitalist motives. Success is defined by productivity and diligence: the more you achieve, despite sacrifice, the more you\u2019re rewarded. Often, this leads high achievers to experience depression<\/a> and burnout.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s maybe where some of the friction comes from, of feeling that achievement is something potentially dangerous to people,\u201d Bradbury said. \u201cWhen people achieve blindly, they achieve for others. They achieve for other goals. They achieve for other people\u2019s values, in ways that can end up burning you out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being driven and productive doesn\u2019t necessarily make you a product of hustle culture. Prioritizing your goals does not make you a workaholic. Ignoring your basic needs for achievement? That\u2019s where it is unhealthy. But ignoring the need for achievement is also unfulfilling. Although it\u2019s easy to get wrapped up in believing achievement is toxic, we should rethink our perspective. Achievement is not the absence of caring for yourself or living your life \u2014 it\u2019s a step toward realizing who you are and who you can become.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coppa is a journalism sophomore from Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meryl Streep\u2019s Miranda Priestly may be pop culture\u2019s most popular workaholic. What\u2019s not to admire? She is powerful,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-474354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}