Sustainable Ambition Forum - 10.28.21

 
 

What does Sustainable Ambition mean if you are a hard worker? Some of us are wired to be. I know I am. My Responsibility and Achiever strengths drive me. And I enjoy the dopamine hits of getting things done.

My husband and I both often unknowingly say to get ourselves kick-started after taking it slow for the morning or getting distracted in the afternoon, “I have to go get shit done!” As a gift this year, he bought me the below post-it notes to accompany the new standing desk he built for me off our kitchen (his hobby is woodworking).

Can you imagine if someone else gave these to his wife? It might be the equivalent of a 1960’s housewife receiving a vacuum cleaner for her birthday. That thought made me laugh out loud. I thought the post-it notes were hilarious and a brilliant representation of a shared insider joke of sorts. They now have a cherished spot on my desk.

Yet, even though I’m a hard worker doesn’t mean I don’t want a more sustainable life+work. It means I need to find ways to sustain myself and build resilience to support how I like to stretch myself.

To be sure, I also need to manage how many hours I work. In fact, for most of us after 48 hours of work in a week our productivity and impact starts to drop. Maybe there are a few mortals that can sustain longer working hours and who need little sleep (e.g., Tim Cook, Tom Ford, Martha Stewart). But that’s not the majority of us.

I’m coming to think hard workers need to be even more diligent about building habits for recovery and resilience. Those could include breaks and pauses, time to create, investment in activities that fuel us, and more. And it’s not about being in balance all the time. There may be times of intensity that you need to plan for and build in resilience measures.

To that point, I don’t think it’s about the adage: work hard, play hard. Play hard just sounds way too extreme and like it won’t serve the purpose playing should provide—the recovery we need and building up our resilience stores to support us during the work hard times. Instead, it might work more like HIIT (high-intensity interval training)—a hard work interval followed by a rest and recovery interval.

This time of the pandemic continues to present opportunities to rethink how we shape our world and our habits. For those of us who are hard workers, perhaps it looks like building new habits that honor our desire to work hard, but also factors in rest and recovery to build our resilience.

What are the activities you want to build into your work and life structures to sustain yourself? What’s one small step or action you can take today to put that into an existing routine or ritual?

There’s no reason to hide behind a costume and be ashamed of being a hard worker. It frustrates me when hard work gets villainized. Now, to be sure, it’s not for everyone, but we’re not all the same. Some of us are hard workers, yet you likely also want to show up as your best self and avoid burnout. So consider being just as committed to sustaining yourself as you are to stretching yourself.

Happy Halloween, all!
Kathy Oneto
Founder of Sustainable Ambition


The Round-Up

Why do we often work so hard after all? A good read by Cal Newport about why we end up with 20% more on our plate, how using stress-level as a barometer often throws us out of whack, and how we play a role in it. A better way—to control the load at a macro level.

Tips to be productive during work time: from investigating what works and doesn’t, taking small actions to improve, shifting your environment, and optimizing your workflows. Learn more.

Take better breaks to sustain yourself. First become aware of when you need them, then take better breaks from as little as 45 seconds long. Schedule your breaks, and test what works best for you. Learn more.

Play more: It’s not just for kids. A good reminder from our friends at Verse Media to get out and play more to re-energize and uplift us. How can you bring play into your professional and personal life?

Exhausted and overwhelmed? If you're an On Being fan, here’s a collection of resources to help.

Find your Zone of Genius & shift your mindset on time: In “The Big Leap,” Gay Hendricks encourages us to get past our upper limit problem and move towards operating in our Zone of Genius, an unlock to greater fulfillment and energy around one’s work. He also talks about taking a new view on time, shifting from a Newtonian view of time based on scarcity to an Einstein view of time in which we take charge of the time we have.

Stop languishing and find flow: Adam Grant continues to guide us on moving past languishing towards flourishing. Read it in print, listen, or watch.

Let off some steam (a Halloween treat!): Get into some holiday spirit with a ghost tour of Edith Wharton's haunted home. I did this as a pandemic treat last year, and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. I found it spooky and fun. Why not?


The Sustainable Ambition Podcast - Episodes 23 & 34

Join me for conversations with experts, authors, and friends on
what it means to live with Sustainable Ambition.

Episode #23: On Well-Being & Taking Back Control of your Day with Liz Koehler & Clare Davenport

In this episode, I’m joined by Liz Koehler and Clare Davenport, both who are experts in positive psychology and well-being. They conducted research around addressing well-being amid constant choice and change rooted in positive psychology. What’s great about what Liz and Clare share is how we can take small actions to take back control of our days and improve our well-being.

Listen on Apple here or on our website here.

Episode #34: On Flourishing at Work in Community & with Experimentation with Amy Bonsall

In this episode, I’m joined by Amy Bonsall, founder and CEO of Nau, a business designed to support teams and individuals in flourishing at work. I love how Amy shares great stories in this episode, pulling from her work experiences, as well as research that supports her counsel and the work she does. If you’re wondering how to bring a focus on well-being into your organization to support everyone flourishing, definitely give this a listen and reach out to Amy.

Listen on Apple here or on our website here.

You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Overcast.


A Practice: Sustainable Ambition HIIR (High Intensity Interval Recovery)

Are you a hard worker? Then to sustain yourself and stay operating at your best, it’s important to determine what works best for you to recover and restore yourself and build your resilience stores.

Get inspired by the idea of HIIT (high-intensity interval training)—a hard work interval followed by a rest and recovery interval—to create a High Intensity Interval Recovery (HIIR) routine that works for you.

How to do it? What’s your 45 seconds on (stretch yourself, work hard) and 15 sec off recovery (sustain yourself, rest and restore) equivalent? If there are intense periods in your week, when will you find time for sustaining activities? If there are intense periods across 12-18 months, when will you block time for resilience building activities?

Make it a practice to think about: How do I want to stretch myself? Then, how will I sustain myself?



“Without labor, nothing prospers.”

— Sophocles

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SUSTAINABLE AMBITION™ IS ABOUT CRAFTING A FULFILLING CAREER TO SUPPORT YOUR LIFE FROM DECADE TO DECADE.

It is centered around articulating your personal definition of success and achieving that without burnout while honoring your personal aspirations and ambitions as they ebb and flow over time. The end game—more fulfillment and ease in your professional and personal life, while still being ambitious.

We offer 1:1 Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, or Career Strategy Coaching, as well as VIP Leadership Brand Sessions and Workshops on a range of Sustainable Ambition topics. We also provide tips and inspiration, advice on career management over the decades, guides on key Sustainable Ambition topics of interest, and coverage of tools and inspiration.