03. The Fault in Overcompensating
The point at which “just try harder” gains negative returns
Thought experiment: you are given a machine that you believe will be able to get you a certain result. You start to plan around these expectations and come up with the long-term map that this machine will enable you to follow. At first all is going well, but by about the third or fourth checkpoint the machine’s capabilities no longer align with your expectations. You invest in upgrades and procedures to optimize output, but again by the fifth or sixth checkpoint, no matter how hard you push the machine, you’re not getting what you need out of the damn thing.
What do you do: keep trying to fix the machine, or throw out the map?
And no, getting a better machine is not an option. You are the machine.
To overcompensate is to “take excessive measures in attempting to correct or make amends for an error, weakness, or problem.” The term has a socially negative connotation related to foolishness or wishful thinking. No one wants to be accused of overcompensating, because that means that they are under the delusion that they can make up for something they fundamentally lack. Imagine my surprise when I realized that it is my default approach to confronting situational chaos.
The thought came to me after oversleeping the alarm I set to wake me up after a power nap. I was supposed to get sleep and wake up early so that I could have enough brain power to complete the tasks I didn’t have the time or space to complete the day before. Pushing myself the way I did back in college doesn’t seem to have the same level of effectiveness as it did then, if anything it has made things worse. I got to a place of anxiety and insecurity where I didn’t believe I could trust myself to get things done at all, and I questioned even the goals that I had set for myself. But then again, maybe the method was never effective in the first place.
Overcompensating in this context would probably be reframed as “hustling.” There’s dialogue on how to get the most output as possible in order to achieve your goals, how to “hack your brain” for the purpose of gaining leverage towards success, and all the rest. There’s also dialogue countering this emphasis on struggling to make it and instead having radical self care and embracing your limitations.
I think the truth lies somewhere between these two camps. Perhaps instead of focusing on what you can get out of yourself or trying to embrace your limits, there is a way to rewrite the problem statement. There’s a perspective that looks deeper than the results, that engages the core of our being to create within us the growth we need to both achieve and love ourselves at once. After all, if there is something that we fundamentally lack, isn’t it within our best interest to find it?
