I recently hiked Dix Mountain in Lake Placid, New York. This is a 13.6 round-trip hike through rivers, mud, and very steep inclines for miles. Being the sixth highest peak in the Adirondacks and 4,800 feet in elevation, I felt like it was worth it.

The friend I was with could bound through rocks and difficult ledges like no one's business. However, he kept needing to stop because I just couldn't keep up. I previously bragged that I could hike any mountain with my "Colorado legs." Having hiked nearly two miles above sea level in my home state out west, the Adirondacks shouldn't have been a problem.

But I found out very quickly that I wasn't such hot stuff. I was constantly stopping and yelling obscenities at the mountain for being just so dang hard. We made it there and back, though I avoided the final peak and chose to stay on the horn and admire the view. Even though I made it to the same elevation at the horn, choosing to stay back still felt like a failure because I didn't go all the way. All I could think was, "Why aren't you going all the way? You should do better."

You should do better.

This is a thought that reverberates through my head on a regular basis.

Mirriam-Webster defines an overachiever as, "one who achieves success over and above the standard or expected level especially at an early age." This so minimizes what I've experienced all my life, the constant push to do better and be better at everything I do. But this points out a symptom many kids inherit from a world that tells them that no matter what, they're not good enough.

Psychology Today laid it out for me in an article titled, "Field Guide to the Overachiever." While I'm not diagnosed with a disorder, per se, an "underlying fear of failure or a self-worth contingent upon competence" with a dash of anxiety-ridden perfectionism sounds a lot like my life. Constantly striving for better and avoiding rejection plagues the overachieving mind. As long as I'm told that I'm doing well, then I am doing well.

I recently graduated from Clarkson University with a 3.7 GPA and an acceptance letter from a Master's program at the University of Southern California (USC). But when I found out that I couldn't afford their hefty tuition and had to give up my spot in the program, all of my previous achievement vanished in this void of self-deprecation.

You should have looked for more scholarships. Why did you waste your time when you had graduate school to worry about? Now you'll never get that spot back. Never mind that I was in Scotland my first semester of senior year and then completing a 19-credit course load including an internship and four other jobs. I should have done better.

For those of you out there who experience a similar case of the I'm-not-good-enough's, it's not always like this. I've gotten better at being good to myself. Sure, I didn't hike that mountain as fast as my friend, but I hiked 13 friggin' miles with serious incline and made it home to tell the tale. I'm not going to be in California this fall, but I have many professional contacts with networks and opportunities that would be lucky to have me on their team. I also got into USC, which according to US News, is the 23rd best school in the nation. I can do it again.

Appreciating the little things has gotten me through trying times. When things don't go your way, they're all you can count on consistently. For instance, I was super nervous to write my first Odyssey article. But look at that — I managed to finish it.