Achiever Syndrome®

Achiever Syndrome mentoring services in the field of life coaching and professional speaking will give you skills you can use throughout your life.

The Achiever Syndrome was developed in Spring of 2011 by Coach Angela Pennella through personal experience and research, drawing insights from coaching, psychology, the nervous system and stories of high achieving individuals. She assigned a name to what she was experiencing. Achiever Syndrome is a concept and trademark that describes a behavior pattern where an individual loses their sense of self-worth in pursuit of attaining achievement. Achievers often show characteristics as people in survival mode, seeking to fulfill a relational need for love and value from achievements, whether it’s in their work, children, wealth, etc. It is an unhealthy fixation on goals and achievements, where one’s self-worth becomes overly tied to their accomplishments. People with Achiever Syndrome often fear self-intimacy and feel threatened with shame and lack of life balance when they are not performing.

It personifies people like Angela, a former Double Alpha.  The Double Alpha defines a person who is focused on achieving goals and success, personally and/or professionally, that other areas of life begin to suffer. They believe that their value is determined by their successes. The Double Alpha’s often find themselves feeling unfulfilled and unsettled until everything on their ”to do” list is accomplished and complete.  However, the time of “everything is finally done and I can relax” will never come for the Double Alpha because they are always reaching to accomplish more.  They are Achievers. They often find themselves living a list conscious lifestyle where it can become a daily struggle for Achievers to loosen up on their drive to succeed to reach any level of balance.  The Double Alpha is driven by the feeling of success, and tend to be task-oriented and focused on making things happen in their life than enjoying the journey and loosening the grip on control. Their personal and/or professional achievements may feel fulfilling, but a deeper sense of joy and happiness does not exist.  

If the Double Alpha doesn’t sound familiar, then perhaps you relate to the other face of the Achiever Syndrome, called the Blissful type.  This is person who is somewhat comfortable with where they are in life, but lack the drive and ability to get to the next level and to feel any achievement in their life.  That missing piece might be financial security, significant other, or emotional health and well-being.  If you ask the Blissful, if where they are at in their life is really where they want to be, they would probably respond with a yes.  However, a daily struggle for the Blissful is a lack of motivation to thrive for any accomplishment because life seems to be alright.  A challenge for the Blissful type is to keep the inner peace they have living well on the inside, while trying to gather ambition to step outside of a comfort zone to achieve their goals and make things happen in their life.  The peacefulness inside remains present, but the ability to take the next step forward to achieve more that they desire on the outside, is not quite there yet.

We might all relate to a face of the Achiever Syndrome at some point in life.  Coach Angela describes other types of the Double Alpha and Blissful types of the Achiever Syndrome as the Go-Getter, Activator, Pleaser, Burn Out, Competitor, Tunnel Vision, Bubble, Blurry.

Over several months to further brainstorm the concept, and “digging in” and healing, the Achiever Syndrome has evolved into a comprehensive and dynamic Thriver system to help all the different faces of the Achievers and Blissful, find or attain outer success by completing their goals and at the same time maintain or find genuine harmony and a true balance in their lives.

Achiever Syndrome mentoring services in the field of life coaching and professional speaking will give you skills you can use throughout your life.