The ACT Audiobook
for High – Achieving, Striving, and Perfectionistic Actions
Does this sound like you?
- Do you spend a lot of time paying attention to details and postponing projects or completing tasks because they’re not good enough?
- Are you doing the things you feel confident about but avoiding the things you’re not good at?
- Are you working super hard so you don’t make mistakes?
- Do you want to invite your friends over to your home but you’re concerned about being seen as lazy because the walls of your apartment are blank months after moving in?
- Do you stay in the same position at work or the same major in college, even though you feel that another opportunity would excite you more?
- Do you want to start a new hobby but are concerned about messing up?
- Do you spend hours criticizing yourself because of mistakes you have made?
- Are you a go-getter, doer, and maker that pushes harder and harder when caring about stuff?
- Have you been told to let go of your standards but you resent those messages and despite your best efforts you keep working harder and harder because you know that “working hard pays off?”
Perfectionistic, high-achieving, and striving actions can show up in so many ways and in every area of your life:
- Your relationships
(e.g. searching for the perfect partner or the perfect date). - Your career
(e.g. spending hours & hours on a project until it fully reflects your true character). - Your studies
(e.g. avoiding participating in class so you don’t make a fool of yourself). - Your community
(e.g. worrying about what your neighbors will think if your garden looks less than the ideal). - Your parenting style
(e.g. making sure that your kids don’t have stains on their clothes otherwise that could mean that you’re a disheveled parent). - Your exercising
(e.g. blaming yourself for hours for skipping the gym twice and not following the exercising routine exactly as recommended). - Your eating habits
(e.g. feeling guilty for eating forbidden foods on the weekend even though you strictly followed your diet the week before).
High-achieving actions can go unchecked and unrecognized for a long time, to the point that they keep you stuck in a perfectionistic trap, thinking and thinking in your head and missing life around you.
But, it doesn’t have to be all bad.
What if you had…
- A new framework to harness the power of perfectionistic, high-achieving, and striving actions?
- What if this means that you could enjoy the golden nuggets of striving, perfectionistic, and high-achieving behaviors without hundreds of hours of self-criticism, worrying, and sleepless nights?
- What if this means that you can do what you care about – according to your standards – without hurting your relationships or the relationship with yourself.
- An expert to learn from?
Sample
About Dr. Z.
I’m originally from Bolivia, South America, and am a psychologist by training. I’m formally trained in empirically supported treatments, and when I say “formally,” I mean that since 2004 I have received intensive training in them, particularly in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
Over the past 18 years, I have created resources for and worked with overthinkers and overachievers dealing with all types of fear--related struggles: perfectionism, procrastination, productivity anxiety, uncertainty intolerance, indecision, impostor phenomenon, overthinking, phobias, rumination, panic, worry and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I absolutely love my job!
In 2019, I was nominated as a fellow by the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science because of my contributions related to the applications of ACT for fear-based struggles. I’m the author of seven books and the co-author of three (see the section on previously written books).
I’m the founder and director of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center, a boutique private center in the San Francisco Bay Area that offers therapy and coaching for anyone experiencing anxiety-based struggles.
In 2023, I gave a TEDx talk, “Stop playing-it-safe and start living” that has more than 264K downloads.
While I’m a psychologist by training and science-based by passion, my style is jargon-free, accessible, caring, and lighthearted; teaching ACT skills doesn’t have to be boring or inaccessible, so I do my best to make every skill I teach—in any format—as engaging as possible.
I believe that learning to navigate fear-based reactions is one of the key skills of the 21st century, and I’m passionate about it.
I'm passionate about disseminating ACT skills for anxiety-based struggles.
In this audio-guide you will learn KEY SKILLS to:
- Apply Acceptance and Commitment skills on-the-go.
- Play the workability game, ACT style!
- Approach skillfully your pronness high-achieving actions.
- Finding what works for YOU.
- Discover what’s behind those perfectionist actions.
- Make values-based choices
- Hold your mind lightly
Sample
If you feel trapped by perfectionism or are a stressed-out high achiever–this is for you! Dr. Z’s work on the topics is stuffed full of helpful information, tips, and strategies to help not only identify what’s important to you but how to go after it in a flexible and compassionate way.
She doesn’t try to talk you out of working hard or striving to be your absolute best, but how make sure you are working towards the life you want and to make sure you are enjoying yourself along the way. It is encouraging without being preachy. It is a resource I’ll go back to again and again!
Here’s what’s inside
This 11 episode audio guide, based on Acceptance and Commitment Skills, offers you a new frame and mindset to deal with your proneness to striving, high-achieving, and perfectionistic behavior.
Episode 1: What is perfectionism?
Episode 2: Are perfectionistic actions working for you or against you?
Episode 3: Flipping the coin
Episode 4: The workability game
Episode 5: How to play the workability game
Episode 6: Passionately dispassionately
Episode 7: Designed for distraction, exploration, and amusement
Episode 8: Choices, choices, and more choices
Episode 9: Show up to others, authentically
Episode 10: Give yourself permission
Episode 11: What’s your next?
But that’s not all …
1:1 ACT Focused Coaching
* only for clients outside of California or the United States *
If you have specific questions about perfectionistic actions, have been dealing with them for a long time, and want to take things a step further, you can get 1:1 coaching with Dr. Z. to unpack those specific sticky moments.
You are getting MASSIVE value from a trained, Licensed Psychologist, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Practitioner with 18 years of specialized training and experience on anxiety-based struggles!
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Dr. Z. !
In our coaching session, I’ll provide you with:
- A roadmap to get unstuck from any form of striving, high-achieving, and perfectionistic behaviors you’re dealing with.
- Compassionate and research-based skills to handle moments of stuckness.
- ACT skills to enjoy the golden nuggets of striving, perfectionistic, and high-achieving behaviors without hundreds of hours of self-criticism, worrying, and sleepless nights.
- Actionable skills to do what you care about – according to your standards – without hurting your relationships or the relationship with yourself.
“Dr. Patricia Zurita-Ona is an incredible therapist. I had been dealing with anxiety for well over a decade before I met her. She was able to explain that I had been dealing with procrastination, perfectionism, and helped me actively learn how to accept this and realize that anxiety comes and goes. She truly changed my life. I owe so much to Dr. Z, she has continued to help me over the years when I need any assistance in getting back on track to acceptance and commitment therapy!”
