Make your Sustainable Ambition strategy more conscious
I’ve been delving even more into research on ambition at the start of the year, and one of the learnings is how much of what we might want to stretch or strive for (what I would call our right ambitions that are aligned to what we want, not society or family should’s) is often unconscious and that it’s important to connect our conscious selves to what’s inside. We need to get to know who we are and what we want paying close attention to the clues we receive from ourselves.
I also believe we don’t think about our ambitions enough, asking ourselves that very question—for what do we really want to stretch or strive? How good do we want to be? How much effort do we want to put in?
What if we made these choices more consciously? What if we became consciously ambitious?
I’m starting to sharpen how I think about managing Sustainable Ambition in the short-term vs. career management over time. If we want to be ambitious but not at all costs and better integrate life and work and make it all more sustainable, I point to aligning the Right Ambition at the Right Time with the Right Effort.
When I use “right,” I mean right for you, claiming what’s right and shifting it to internal guidance vs. external guides.
What that can look like is:
Right Ambition: Align to your personal definition of success and success metrics. How can you make your ambitions meaningful and motivating for you so you have the energy for them? What will be fulfilling and satisfying to you? Hint: Look to your vision for your life and work and how you want to contribute and give. Align your work to your values and activities you love.
Right Time: Align to what’s personally important across your life and work now. Are you clear on what needs your attention across both? Start life first. What is important in your life now? What are your life non-negotiables? What is it time to do now and what courageous choice are you making to focus your attention?
Right Effort: Align your effort and energy to the ambition. Ambitions aren’t created equal—which ambitions are worth the hard work? Where can you dial in your effort across ambitions? How will you sustain your energy by restoring, protecting, and supporting it?
I encourage you to play with these questions to start to put Sustainable Ambition principles into practice and help dial in your 2023 ambitions to make them more sustainable.
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