The best quarterly economic growth in four years may be "too good" and lead to an eventual drag on the stock market, Jim Paulsen told CNBC on Wednesday.

But you have to play "connect the dots" to get there.

Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group, said, "If we keep up anywhere close to 4 percent growth in the rest of this year, I just got to believe they're going to push ... [annual] inflation, wages, the 10-year yield all above 3 percent."

Those three factors could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a more rapid rate, something that historically creates a headwind for the stock market. The Fed is expected to hike rates once, or maybe twice, before the end of the year. Central bankers already increased the cost of borrowing money in March and June.

"We're going to be struggling a little bit with good growth, but maybe too good," Paulsen said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "I do think the market is still going to have a struggle finding this silver lining, 'Goldilocks' path, because you could get either too hot or too cold in a hurry here this late in an economic cycle at full employment."

Paulsen's comments came after the government on Wednesday said the U.S. economy grew at a revised 4.2 percent annual rate in the second quarter, stronger than estimates and the initial report last month. That's the fastest growth rate since the third quarter of 2014.