I've always been known to people as an overachiever. "Heather is an overachiever. She works so hard and always gets things done!"

That's a good thing, right? At first glance, yes. Honestly, the meaning is really unclear.

A lot of people think that being called an overachiever is a compliment, but being an overachiever is not always a positive thing. It is a blessing and a curse.

It can be a blessing when you decide to start studying for chemistry weeks before the exam instead of cramming. It can be a blessing when you have a lot to do and want to get it all done. It is a blessing when you want to become a doctor and have to stay motivated.

But it can be a curse.

Being an overachiever is awful when it starts to impact your well-being. Being an overachiever is terrible when you work so hard and so tirelessly that you don't recognize when you need a break. It is even worse when you create goals that are close to impossible but refuse to let yourself fail.

What people don't realize is that being an overachiever is a part of me, but for a while it used to define me.

It's so easy to let being a hard worker and an overachiever define you, and this is so damaging. It becomes a problem when your success becomes your identity.

Let me tell you a story.

In middle school, my teachers knew me as the "Type A" student. I got wonderful grades, and my work was often the model that teachers used when explaining what to do.

I remember not really feeling any pride at all when my teachers congratulated me. I knew they had good intentions, but I wished that they knew what it was really like.

I like to work hard, and I always have.

But my teachers didn't know that I would cry when I didn't understand my math homework. I would erase my homework so much that my paper would rip. I would tell myself that I was stupid and would never amount to anything.

But Heather, that's not normal. There's no way that being an overachiever caused so many problems for you.

I know it's not normal. I know that having anxiety definitely contributed to my problems. As a child, I struggled with self-esteem. I can't believe that I was so self-critical at such a young age. But I also know that being an overachiever contributed to my pain. I couldn't celebrate my success. I always demanded more.

It took me a while to learn how to deal with failure. I feel bad for the teachers who had to see me cry in class. That got better once I got to high school, but I honestly look back at middle school and the years before middle school with a bit of shame. I wish I had known that I was expecting too much of myself.

After enrolling in an advanced academic program in high school, I learned how to deal with failure. I failed a lot, but that was expected. My teachers told me not to worry because the course material was challenging. It was okay to fail.

They knew how to handle people like me, people who demanded way too much of themselves, because most students in the program were like me. They expected the best of themselves. They had always gotten high grades and always worked hard. They recognized the danger of burnout.

In high school, I truly recognized how unhealthy my approach to school was. I stayed up way too late doing assignments and criticized myself heavily every time I did something wrong. I learned that this wasn't conducive to my success.

I spent the rest of high school trying to stay balanced. I think I did pretty well. Instead of hating myself every time I failed, I began to use my failures as a way to push myself more.

This is where being an overachiever is a wonderful thing. My friends in college often ask me how I stay motivated and how I push myself to do so much. The answer is that I'm an overachiever. Being an overachiever is a part of my personality. I don't think I would be anywhere without it.

But I can tell you now that if I were still the 13-year-old erasing her homework until it ripped, I would not be doing well in college right now. I would be suffering.

It's so important to recognize when being an overachiever can be toxic. In a world where productivity is important and life seems nonstop, it's so easy to work hard until you are completely exhausted.

I'm here to tell you that being an overachiever can be exhausting, but it is also the best thing that happened to me. It is what helps me keep going to reach my goals.

So this is for you, the overachiever: Don't let people tell you that you can't, but know your limits. You can't always be the best, and that's okay.