The Anxiety Behind High Performance in Academia and Professional Careers

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · May 30, 2026 · 10m

I’ve been digitizing old photos of myself as a kid.

What hit me was not the haircut.

It was how hard I was on myself even then.

By 13 or 14, I had already decided I needed to be perfect to be liked.

That belief pushed me through engineering, a PhD, and becoming a professor.

It also quietly followed me everywhere.

Academia did not create my anxiety.

It rewarded it.

You learn quickly that you are never quite good enough.

Publish more.

Work harder.

Do better.

Repeat.

If you stay long enough, you start to believe it.

It becomes your normal.

Looking at those old photos, I realized something…