The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: overachieving lifestyle, overachieving women, classic overachievers, The Cult of Perfection, The Effect, Life Events (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For some women, success is a relative term. One in six women is an overachiever, constantly striving to do more, better, faster, and look fabulous at all times--so if you are looking around the room at your five closest friends thinking they're all slackers, it's you! You know who you are: the successful woman who feels competitive with her own friends and family members; the stick-thin athlete who won't stop working out; the guilt-ridden executive who always feels she has to do more than others to stay ahead; the grown-up "Little Miss Perfect" who can't stop being the Stepford wife and mother. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much you achieve, your life remains totally out of balance. Achievements should not be the total measure of how a woman feels about herself.

Syndicated radio talk-show host Cooper Lawrence has been there. With humor and compassion, she helps readers assess the overachiever's goals, their states of mind, the pressure from their families . . . and lets them know it's not a bad thing to be an overachiever--some people are just born that way! Cooper's book defines the physical and emotional effects of someone who suffers from the big "O," explains why she does it, and offers a reality check and advice on creating balance. With common sense and "Tales from the Treadmill" case studies, this book explores the best ways to do it all and still achieve real success--self-acceptance.

From the Inside Flap

One in six women is an overachiever, constantly striving to get more done and do everything better and faster, while looking fabulous at all times—so if you are looking around the room at your five closest friends thinking they’re all slackers, it’s you!

Twenty-four hours are simply not enough for all you do in a day. Your calendar is booked solid for the next six months. You set a higher standard for yourself than for everyone else, and you are never fully satisfied with your life, because you can see how much more you can achieve. You are an overacheiver, and that can be a
good thing.

The Cult of Perfection offers practical advice on how to monitor and ease your stress, prioritize your time, build lasting self-esteem, and always feel in control. The goal: To be at peace with your inner overachiever. Psychology and relationship expert (and self-professed overachiever) Cooper Lawrence reveals the positive aspects of an overachieving lifestyle, and how to make it work for you so that you don’t lose touch with family and friends . . . and your own sanity.
This book explores how personality, upbringing, and life events lead to overachieving, and how this drive has an impact on your home and family life, friendships, health, state of mind—and even your future.

Full of candid personal stories from fellow overachievers, The Cult of Perfection confirms that you are not alone in your quest for the best. Informative quizzes, tips, and “to do” lists all provide empowering tools for effectively managing your busy lifestyle.

So set aside some time in your schedule, step off the treadmill, and learn how to delegate, balance your needs, set priorities—and discover that you’re so much more than your achievements.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: skirt!; 1st edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599211793
• ISBN-13: 978-1599211794
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,160 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3,336 of 3,369 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Money, January 23, 2008

By	Kevin Leistman (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a pointless read and filled with old, rehashed ideas. Cooper Lawrence offers no new insight to the deeper problems that cause someone to need to be an over achiever. There are many other books out there that were written by actual practicing psychologists and which are respected by the psychological community at large. I seriously recommend Codependent No More by Melody Beattie for anyone that stuggles with this. Also, going to an actual licensed psychologist may be the answer.

Please don't contribute to the rash of pop psychology that promises quick fixes and delivers little or no results.

576 of 579 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just Plain Bad, January 24, 2008

By	Jimmy Palmer (Oxford) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cooper is at best only interesting in superficial qualities of life. It truly disturbs me that this woman is held up as a role model for young women in this country. Her advice is heard by many, many young women across this country despite that fact that Cooper has very little real world psychological experience. Essentially this women went straight from college into the entertainment industry: talk radio, magazines, and tabloid news television. As of the writing of this review she has yet to complete her Doctorate.

390 of 390 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sure didn't Overachieve with this title, January 24, 2008

By	Greg J. Wyatt - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My sister recently bought this book and quickly pawned it off on me.
That's the best thing I can really say about this book.

Unfortunately, it seems like Ms.Lawrence really took some meaning from the title of her book; she not only made peace with her inner overachiever but forgot about it completely.

The best word I could use to summarize her work is this, lazy. It's as if she doesn't do any research on any of the topics that she brings up as factual. Instead she seems to have taken from other pseudo-psychology books on the topic that manage to get some coverage and shape what they said into something that is written in stone.

Any actual professional in the fields relevant to the material would have agree that she has no basis for any of her claims she presents as fact in her book.

On a side note, more as a review on the author than the book itself, she has no ethics what-so-ever. She recently went on TV to criticize something she had no experience with at all simply because it would grab her some air-time hoping to get her name and book out to the public. Besides the fact that her book is definitely undeserving of a purchase, I would never knowingly support anything this woman does knowing that she would use such underhanded and ridiculous methods of gaining some TV-time as blindly bashing random things that happen to be in the spotlight at the time.