Were you ever advised to "just relax" before making a big speech? Don’t. From Texas A&M professor and celebrity advisor, Dr. John Eliot, this insightful guide takes a sledgehammer to what most of us think we know about doing our best. Eliot explains how mainstream psychology moves us in the wrong direction when it comes to stress management and performance enhancement; techniques like visualization and goal setting, based on pseudoscience rather than empirical evidence, often get in our way rather than propel us forward. Drawing on field-tested experiments and extensive research in neuropsychology, Eliot shares why these “common sense” strategies tend to come up short for the majority of people—and how, instead, great accomplishments are more likely to result from "Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket", "Thinking Like a Squirrel", and "Embracing Butterflies As a Good Thing". These counterintuitive practices not only trigger your full natural talent, but also teach you how to thrive under pressure, not dread it. OVERACHIEVEMENT incorporates Eliot’s work with Fortune 500 companies, Olympic athletes, renowned surgeons, military pilots, and Grammy-winning musicians, providing you with a powerful combination of inspiring stories and life-changing tools, offering the skills needed to overcome stress and rise above your peers in the boardroom, on the playing field, or in the normal day-to-day of life.

Raising an extremely bright child - quick, curious, sensitive, and introspective - is a daunting challenge. Parents need insight into their own motivations (as well as those of their children), and the courage and ability to make tough decisions about their child's development. "Raising Gifted Kids" will help parents understand and cope with the obstacles they face in raising a gifted child, and help them make the best choices for their son's or daughter's growth and happiness.

In Overachievement, Dr. Eliot offers us the counterintuitive and unconventional concepts that have been embraced by Olympic athletes, business moguls, top surgeons, salesmen, financial experts, and rock kstars who have turned to him for performance enhancement advice. Mixing scientific insights with entertaining and inspiring stories, Overachievement wll help you achieve spectacular on the jjob, on the playing field, or in any situation that demands you rise above and beyond what you ever thought possible.

It's time to stop. It's time to break the rules. Join speaker and coach Heather Whelpley as she shares her life-changing journey to let go of proving, pleasing, and perfecting-and guides you to do the same. Through a seamless blend of vulnerable, heartfelt stories and practical tools, you'll discover why you go into overachieving perfection mode and learn how to: Quiet the inner critic-and reawaken your true inner voice Reconnect to your body Reclaim your joy Redefine success on your own terms Reset boundaries and say no An Overachiever's Guide to Breaking the Rules is more than a personal development book. It's an inward journey to free yourself from the weight of perfection and start living your truth.

Some girls seem to have it all... The top grades The best clothes A great body A cute boyfriend But they may also have... Exhaustion Anxiety Eating disorders Crippling insecurity From grammar school girls to working women, the pressure to be perfect is spreading like a disease. These Supergirls feel the unrelenting need to succeed -- sometimes at the cost of their own happiness and sanity. A recovering Supergirl herself, Liz Funk exposes the dangerous consequences that can come from striving for perfection. By closely following five girls and interviewing nearly one hundred more, she takes us inside the Supergirl psyche, explaining the causes of this phenomenon and showing how Supergirls can let their (sleek and shiny) hair down and find some time to relax and enjoy life! With practical advice, biting humor, and the sensitivity of someone who's been through it all, Funk's Supergirls Speak Out is the absolutely necessary companion for any girl who thinks 100 percent just isn't enough.

The bestselling author of Pledged returns with a groundbreaking look at the pressure to achieve faced by America's teens In Pledged, Alexandra Robbins followed four college girls to produce a riveting narrative that read like fiction. Now, in The Overachievers, Robbins uses the same captivating style to explore how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. During the year of her ten-year reunion, Robbins goes back to her high school, where she follows heart-tuggingly likeable students including "AP" Frank, who grapples with horrifying parental pressure to succeed; Audrey, whose panicked perfectionism overshadows her life; Sam, who worries his years of overachieving will be wasted if he doesn't attend a name-brand college; Taylor, whose ambition threatens her popular girl status; and The Stealth Overachiever, a mystery junior who flies under the radar. Robbins tackles teen issues such as intense stress, the student and teacher cheating epidemic, sports rage, parental guilt, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that students are driven to suicide and depression because of a B. With a compelling mix of fast-paced narrative and fascinating investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.

Do less—enjoy more. Discover the joys of mediocrity with this lighthearted, life-changing call to inaction. Lower the bar. Turn it down a notch. Get off the Stairmaster. Back away slowly from the to-do list. The Underachiever’s Manifesto is the playfully persuasive guide to living life to the least and loving it. With sharp humor and genuine wisdom, this welcome little book extols the fabulous benefits of underachievement in our overextended society. A witty introduction makes the case for the right amount of effort—a lot less than we’ve been led to believe. Ten principles of underachievement establish the basics (#8: The tallest blade of grass is the surest to be cut), and practical applications show how mediocrity is the key to happiness at work and in relationships, dieting, exercise, investment, and more. Enlisting examples from philosophy, economics, science, and good common sense, The Underachiever’s Manifesto is a lighthearted, life-changing rallying call for those who dare to do less and enjoy more.

Tells how self-destructive patterns of overwork, overachievement and overcaring can lead to stress and affect health.

The classic account of growing up gay in America. "The best little boy in the world never had wet dreams or masturbated; he always topped his class, honored mom and dad, deferred to elders and excelled in sports . . . . The best little boy in the world was . . . the model IBM exec . . . The best little boy in the world was a closet case who 'never read anything about homosexuality.' . . . John Reid comes out slowly, hilariously, brilliantly. One reads this utterly honest account with the shock of recognition." The New York Times "The quality of this book is fantastic because it comes of equal parts honesty and logic and humor. It is far from being the story of a Gay crusader, nor is it the story of a closet queen. It is the story of a normal boy growing into maturity without managing to get raped into, or taunted because of, his homosexuality. . . . He is bright enough to be aware of his hangups and the reasons for them. And he writes well enough that he doesn't resort to sensationalism . . . ." San Francisco Bay Area Reporter

"Eye-opening, comforting, uplifting" 24 months: that's the average time expected for a full recovery from burnout. The syndrome is a growing concern around the world. In the span of these two years, former technology manager Carol Miltersteiner documented her journey through burnout and its side effects (anxiety, depression and stress-related issues). She also reflects on our culture of busyness and how we see productivity. A unique, honest memoir on chronic stress and mental illness, My Morning Pages: Chronicles of Living Through Burnout marks Carol's debut as a writer. The book is a collection of the author's writings following the exercise "Morning Pages", introduced by the multitalented artist Julia Cameron. In My Morning Pages, Carol writes about her exhaustion, her overachiever personality and the effects it had in her personal and professional life. It's a glimpse into one's process of coming from the bottom to the surface and emerging radically different. Carol's mission with this book is to increase awareness and reduce stigma around burnout, anxiety and depression, and to raise hope that there are better, healthier ways to live our lives.