In a world obsessed with success, plenty of us feel a compulsive need to achieve.
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We tell ourselves - and our kids - to try hard and never give up, for this is the secret to success. But by the time young people finish school, many students find it hard not to link their efforts and abilities with their identity and their self-worth with their achievements.
CPXer Justine Toh’s book Achievement Addiction calls out our fraught relationship with success. In this episode, we talk about tiger parenting and its fixation on academic accomplishment and how meritocratic ideas associating success with effort imply that our wins and failures are always deserved. We also discuss other social cues showing the value we place on achievement - like the way former Australian Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey once described Australia as a nation of “lifters, not leaners” which distinguishes between those who contribute to the public purse and those who take from it.
We also talk to Julia, a Sydney-based cardiologist, who wouldn’t describe herself as an achievement addict but who found herself striving for significance. She lets us in on what might be found on the other side of achievement.
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Explore:
Justine Toh’s Achievement Addiction and other titles in the Re:CONSIDERING series.
Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Michael J. Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good
Life and Faith: Monday Matters
Life and Faith: Speaking Freely
Life and Faith: Good for Business
Life and Faith: Dina Katanacho
Life and Faith: At the Movies: Summer 2014
Life and Faith: A Doubter's Guide to the Bible Part III
Life and Faith: A Doubter's Guide to the Bible Part II
Life and Faith: A Doubter's Guide to the Bible Part I
Life and Faith: Family Matters
Life and Faith: Halloween
Life and Faith: Origin Story
Life and Faith: Rewriting Jesus
Life and Faith: Life in the Old City
Life and Faith: Sabbath Rest
Life and Faith: The 100-page Challenge
Life and Faith: Poetic Justice
Life and Faith: View from the Faraway Pagoda
Life and Faith: Conspiracy theories
Life and Faith: Slave or Free?
Life and Faith: Technology
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