Sustainable Ambition Forum - 09.29.22
In my first year of business school, I did something uncharacteristic of me. I played with dialing down my ambitions and the effort I put into certain classes. I knew in business school that my grades didn’t matter externally—recruiters weren’t going to ask for my GPA. What was most important for me was learning the concepts and using the time in school for exploration, experimentation, and building relationships.
Typical of many schools, we had a class with a team Capstone project. At the start of the semester, my team collectively aligned to our ambition: were we okay with getting a B? We agreed that a B was fine and that it was more important to not drive ourselves crazy. We did the work but didn’t kill ourselves, unlike other teams. The outcome—a solid B, graduation after our second year, and successful careers. What’s more, at the end of the semester, there were four business school students who were a whole lot happier, less stressed, and not burnt out.
In the last newsletter, I asked: “What is your work?” Today I’m asking: What is worth the hard work?
How often do we make these assessments around our ambitions or the projects in front of us? Are we okay with dialing down our ambition and reducing our effort, or do we care about an ambition such that it is worth the effort?
In the definition of ambition—“a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work”—there are two elements:
The aspiration
The associated effort
Ambitions are where we desire to put effort.Hard work is often linked to when we are in flow or when we find the right interest against which we want to put effort. In fact, our ambition can change if we find the right goal or topic that lights us up, and then effort follows.
Yet hard work can take a dialing in, too.When we allow our ambitions to take over and we drive too hard, there are downsides (research has shown it can lead to lower levels of happiness and health over time). Too little effort, and we can feel like we are stagnating and not making progress.
I loved a story I heard while tasting wine at Antinori, a winery in Napa Valley. The winemaker at the U.S. establishment was sharing how her boss, the head winemaker from the Italian headquarters with 635 years of winemaking history,likes to keep his employees “at a slight boil.”Probing what that meant she said,“He wants you to be slightly nervous, because he believes it brings good tension to the wine.”I loved this analogy—the idea of keeping ourselves at a slight boil, stretching with ambition and effort but not at a roiling boil that would have the water splash outside the pan (i.e., stretch ourselves so far that leads to frustration or burnout). Perhaps it’s another way of thinking about putting ourselves into a flow state.
So I ask again:What is your work that is worth the hard work?What are your ambitions where you are willing to put in the energy and effort?
It’s worth asking to help dial in the appropriate effort put to different activities in our lives. For example:
Is making a pivot worth the hard work that will be required (which relates to our featured podcasts below on making a career switch)?
Is it worth being consistent and persistent with one’s work as one ages if there is still a desire to succeed (as featured in E74 below and written about in The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási; age is not a limiter to success)?
Is it worth asking these questions and considering how you are applying your time, energy, and effort to find more sustainability in life+work?
As we enter these last months of the year, consider: What is your work that is worth the hard work?
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Note: The image at the top is from an exhibit of work by Guo Pei. The dress took 50,000 hours or 2,000 24-hour days to craft! For Guo Pei, her vision and the artistry is worth the hard work.
The Round-Up
How can we create space for the work that matters? How can we optimize our time to avoid over-work and lean into right effort? Here are a few articles to help.
Get a deeper understanding of what causes time stress and what you can do about it. This article is super helpful to understand why we feel time pressure so we can make a shift between how we wish we spent our time and how we spend it.
Feeling better about life+work may not mean doing less, but rather adding an energizer. As I shared in E58 of the podcast, rest isn’t necessarily the remedy to languishing, stress, or burnout. Research by Laura Vanderkam shows that adding an energizer can have positive effects.
Step away from busy and remain productive. This article offers tips to help create margin in life to go after what really matters to you.
Leaders do have enough time in the day. Learn tips to maximize the time you do have. (Note: Fast Company’s site is down right now, so this link may not work, but hopefully they’ll be back online soon!)
Address imposter syndrome, help burnout. Two former podcast guests are writing on how burnout and imposter syndrome are linked. Dr. Sahar Yousef (E51) has done some work with Asana. Learn more here. And Clare Jose (E22) just released her latest research on burnout tied to imposter syndrome. Learn more here. Both can offer clues on how to address burnout if you are experiencing imposter syndrome, which is the majority of us.
Tip of my tongue 👅. Stop working so hard to figure it out! Check this out to help.
Are you ready to do the work for a career switch?
Want to position yourself for what’s next in your career? This article from Dorie Clark offers wise strategies to do just that.
Are you intrigued by quiet quitting? This article gives constructive insight into what action you might want to take. (Note: Fast Company’s site is down right now, so this link may not work, but hopefully they’ll be back online soon!)
Also, check out our podcast list right below!
Looking to make a career switch? Let’s get you started.
I’ve hosted several solo episodes on the topic and in E75 also spoke with Dr. Dawn Graham, a career switch expert and author of Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success. I hope these provide some smart strategies to step into making a career switch with more confidence and ease and less angst. While making a career switch isn’t easy, if you’re willing to do the work, it is possible to get to the other side in a great place.
E70: SA Quick Tip! On Why to Always Be Thinking about Your Next Play
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
E72: On Career Arcs with Adventure, Grace, & Courage
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
E74: On Why I Love & Hate Arthur Brooks’ “From Strength to Strength”
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
E75: On Building Confidence in Making a Career Switch with Dr. Dawn Graham
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
E76: On Finding the Courage to Step Back to Go Forward in Your Career
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, and more.
5 Questions - What is worth the hard work?
What is your current ambition?
At what level do you want to contribute and deliver? Do you want or need to be good, very good, great?
What does success look like on your terms?
What is the appropriate, associated, right effort—50%, 80%, 100%, 120%?
What will sustain you through the hard work?
Find Your Guide:
Find the perfect guide to match your journey.
“It is labor indeed that puts the difference on everything.”
—John Locke
“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
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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.
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