Conscious Ambition Tips: July 2026
Conscious Ambition Tips: To help become more consciously ambitious and thrive in life and work.
Right Ambition: Follow Your Curiosity
Curiosity is just as powerful and valuable as clarity and conviction. I’m learning to trust it to guide me to new possibilities for what’s next, perhaps even a path I haven’t imagined yet.
What curiosity do you want to explore this summer?
Right Time: Think in Portfolios
In addition to to-do lists, I’m finding it helpful to employ a portfolio strategy approach to manage the balance between execution and exploration. Some projects are close-in, building on existing ideas, products, and content. In the middle arc are extensions into new territories. In the final horizon are further-out explorations and experiments—seeds for what might come next. For me, this provides a narrative and structure that guide the timing and effort for each pursuit.
This is a way to think about your own ambitions, too: what’s now, near, and next.
Right Effort: A Season for Wonder
I’ve previously shared that I love Natalie Nixon’s WonderRigor™ Framework—how with creativity we move between these two states, each requiring different things from us. When we’re in exploration mode, it’s about openness and wandering, following curiosities, and letting ourselves get lost in thinking. Rigor is different—it’s about focus, commitment, and moving things forward.
Summer is a great time to stay in wonder. Let yourself wander for now, because rigor can wait.
Natalie just released her second edition of The Creativity Leap if you'd like to go deeper into her work. You can also check out her articles on Fast Company.
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Sustainable Ambition offers a strategic approach for pursuing our professional and personal goals in a way that is motivating, meaningful, and manageable from stage to stage, rather than be all consuming in a way that compromises other important aspects of our lives or sacrifices our well-being.