The High Achiever’s Guide
The High Achiever’s Guide
Transform Your Success Mindset and
Begin the Quest to Fulfillment
Maki Moussavi
Mango Publishing
Coral Gables
Copyright © 2019 Maki Moussavi
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and review.
Cover & Layout Design: Jermaine Lau
Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society. Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors’ rights.
For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:
Mango Publishing Group
2850 S Douglas Road, 2nd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at [email protected]. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at [email protected] or +1.800.509.4887.
The High Achiever’s Guide: Transform Your Success Mindset and Begin the Quest to Fulfillment
Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-021-9 (e) 978-1-64250-022-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019941804
BISAC category code: SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Success
Printed in the United States of America
For my little birdies, Syra and Sansa, who give me wings, and for my husband, Payam, who sees me.
Never love anybody who treats you like you’re ordinary.
—Oscar Wilde
Table of Contents
Congratulations, You’re a Computer
Part II
Meet Your Operating System
Chapter 4
To Achieve or Not to Achieve
Chapter 5
How Fear Has Made You Its Bitch
Chapter 6
Don’t Just Pray. Row the Damn Boat.
Chapter 7
The Dangerous Allure of Conditions
Part III
System Update
Chapter 8
What Are You Worth?
Chapter 9
Your Feelings Are Your Compass
Chapter 10
What About Your Friends?
Chapter 11
Stay in Your Lane
Part IV
Smooth Operator
Chapter 12
Show Up and Use Your Words, FFS
Chapter 13
Be Tenacious and Trust
Chapter 14
Who Cares, Anyway?
Acknowledgments
Resources
About the Author
Are you successful yet strangely empty? Is there a void you can’t fill, no matter how much money you make, status you achieve, things you buy, or trips you go on? Maybe you’re doing okay, but still feel as if there should be something more. Do you change things up in an attempt to find the mystery puzzle piece, only to find that the sense of a missing element returns once you’ve adjusted to the new normal? Do you wonder if there must be something wrong with you and worry that you’ll never be satisfied? If so, you might be a high achiever.
At the height of my career, when I was finally where I’d always wanted to be, making more money than I ever had, I was miserable. It made no sense. I couldn’t identify why, and as my awareness of just how unhappy I was increased, it took up more and more space in my head until it consumed me. I thought, “I’m damaged in some fundamental way. Why can’t I be happy?” The irony is that, for my most of my adult life, I have focused on gratitude and appreciation for what I do have. I was grateful for my work, my home, my family, my health, my friends, even for the coffee I lingered over daily, enjoying every sip. I had clarity about all that I had going for me. Yet, somehow, it wasn’t enough. I didn’t know why and had no idea how to fix it.
I started tuning in to my coworkers in a different way. I realized that, though the circumstances of our lives varied, many of them felt similarly to me. They “had it all,” but it didn’t feel like much. They were exhausted, put upon, bored, anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, stressed out, running on fumes, irritable, frustrated—the list goes on. Oddly, it reassured me that I wasn’t alone. Not in a misery-loves-company kind of way, but in a way that sparked the thought that we all shared something in common that could be identified with the right tools, if I could find them.
When I began the quest for “the answer,” I was pumped