In a world obsessed with success, plenty of us feel a compulsive need to achieve.
------
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.
------
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
Brick Bats and Bouquets: Malcolm Turnbull’s Very Public Life
Ode to Teachers
Rebroadcast: The Long Shadow of Slavery
We are all Christian now!
Wrestling with Paul
She’s the Business
Ode to Nurses
Don’t Waste a Crisis
Covid Costs, Questions and Community
An Uncommon Instinct
A Reason to Run
The Story of your Life
Brave as a Bear
Out of the Fishbowl
To Change the World
Investigator V
State of Disaster
A Costly Sacrifice
Misadventures in Wellness
Best in Show
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Straight TV
The Tangent on Veritas Catholic Network
Life After Ministry
The Bible Recap
BardsFM