Though it’s been considered a solid piece of life advice for years, surrounding yourself with successful people might not be the best way to achieve your goals.

According to a new study, the pressure that comes from being surrounded by greatness can actually have a detrimental effect on your motivation, rather than spur you on.

Researchers Todd Rogers, associate professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and Avi Feller, assistant professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, measured how students reacted when they encountered examples of ‘exemplary peer performance’, compared with examples of more average performance.

In both a real life scenario and a controlled online experiment, the results came to the same conclusion.

When exposed to peers achieving higher levels of success than them, the majority of students felt less confident in their own abilities, and also less motivated to try and emulate the success of those high achievers.

Speculating on the reasons behind the results, Rogers and Feller believe that constant exposure to somebody else’s success can almost ‘short circuit’ our own inclinations to achieve similar levels.

In a bid to protect our own self-image, the theory is that we become less willing to invest our efforts, and disengaged from our original goals.

If further research confirms the findings of Rogers and Feller, it could have a huge impact on how we approach motivation, both in academic circles and the workplace too.