What"s Common Between the Underachiever and Overachiever?
Overachieving - and the diametric opposite trait of underachieving - are two rather common conditions in today's times.
The seed for either trait is often planted in childhood, when many children fall into these categories in terms of academic performance, sports and many other activities.
We must keep in mind that neither an underachiever nor overachiever are, strictly speaking, living a normal life.
We define overachieving as a state in which a person performs far better than what is expected - or even necessary.
An overachieving child, for instance, feels prevailed upon to obtain very high grades, with the objective being to top the class.
Most parents would not find anything wrong with this.
After all, which parents do not want their children to be the best among their peers? This is precisely where the problem lies - children take their cue from their parents in most things, and in this case the stage is being set for some significant mental, physical, emotional and social problems in later life.
Overachieving kids tend to skip meals, sleep less than required and refrain from social interactions and informal conversations.
All that matters is getting A's.
If such tendencies percolate over into adulthood - which they invariably do - such a person is a prime candidate for some rather large social and health issues.
Underachieving, on the other hand, is the state in which a person performs significantly below his or her obvious potential.
Parents can more readily relate to the problems faced by an underachieving child, because they tend to focus heavily on reversing this trend for most of the child's life.
An underachiever child tends to have little interest in school work and related activities, invariably blames others for mistakes, is generally disorganized and either socializes too much or too little.
The fact is that though they seem to be opposite syndromes, overachieving and underachieving are really related conditions that stem from low self esteem.
Children who focus on achieving too much actually consider their academic grades as barometers of their personal worth.
Underachievers are scared to perform well and may even be averse to trying - simply because they lack sufficient self esteem.
For reasons that may well lie in problematic parenting styles, such kids assume that they are not good enough to succeed at anything.
Finally, a child who receives too much or too little attention can also turn into either an overachiever or underachiever.
For instance, too much attention from parents and family can cause the child to underachieve in order to create some badly-needed space.
Over-and-underachieving are issues that must be addressed by confidence building.
There are various ways helping a child become more confident, and these should be seriously considered if parents hope to see him or her grow into well-balanced adulthood.
The seed for either trait is often planted in childhood, when many children fall into these categories in terms of academic performance, sports and many other activities.
We must keep in mind that neither an underachiever nor overachiever are, strictly speaking, living a normal life.
We define overachieving as a state in which a person performs far better than what is expected - or even necessary.
An overachieving child, for instance, feels prevailed upon to obtain very high grades, with the objective being to top the class.
Most parents would not find anything wrong with this.
After all, which parents do not want their children to be the best among their peers? This is precisely where the problem lies - children take their cue from their parents in most things, and in this case the stage is being set for some significant mental, physical, emotional and social problems in later life.
Overachieving kids tend to skip meals, sleep less than required and refrain from social interactions and informal conversations.
All that matters is getting A's.
If such tendencies percolate over into adulthood - which they invariably do - such a person is a prime candidate for some rather large social and health issues.
Underachieving, on the other hand, is the state in which a person performs significantly below his or her obvious potential.
Parents can more readily relate to the problems faced by an underachieving child, because they tend to focus heavily on reversing this trend for most of the child's life.
An underachiever child tends to have little interest in school work and related activities, invariably blames others for mistakes, is generally disorganized and either socializes too much or too little.
The fact is that though they seem to be opposite syndromes, overachieving and underachieving are really related conditions that stem from low self esteem.
Children who focus on achieving too much actually consider their academic grades as barometers of their personal worth.
Underachievers are scared to perform well and may even be averse to trying - simply because they lack sufficient self esteem.
For reasons that may well lie in problematic parenting styles, such kids assume that they are not good enough to succeed at anything.
Finally, a child who receives too much or too little attention can also turn into either an overachiever or underachiever.
For instance, too much attention from parents and family can cause the child to underachieve in order to create some badly-needed space.
Over-and-underachieving are issues that must be addressed by confidence building.
There are various ways helping a child become more confident, and these should be seriously considered if parents hope to see him or her grow into well-balanced adulthood.
