Sustainable Ambition Forum - 9.30.24
If you live and work in the U.S., you might have daydreamed about finding better work-life balance by moving to another country with different cultural norms and government structures around work.
But what if the challenges of navigating life and work in the modern world are more pervasive than we think? What if the structures that need to change run much deeper than government policy and programs?
To explore these questions, in my latest podcast episode I was joined by coach and consultant Sandra Fillaudeau, who lives and works in France and whose work tackles questions of work-life integration, gender balance, and sustainable living. She experienced and continues to explore the factors that make work-life balance elusive to people even in her country, like the ideal worker norm and other cultural factors. That’s what we discuss in the episode I feature below.
Sandra and I both explore new ways of more consciously living and working. And we ask, how can we be sustainably ambitious across life and work? A few key factors are allowing our ambitions to ebb and flow over time, embracing the realities of life, and to attune to what works best for us personally. To be sure, organizations play a role, too, making it important to bring these conversations to the workplace, although that is not easy or always embraced. So, it’s also helpful to ask what might be required of ourselves, too, and to embrace the complexity and messiness that is real for us in our pursuit.
For some support in this quest, this month I share just a few resources on what I’ve explored within the last month that offer tips on ways to fuel us and keep us sustained in our journey.
Cheers!
Kathy
Founder of Sustainable Ambition
A FREE Sustainability Quarterly Check-In
I’d love to have you join me for a final 2024 Quarter Check-In.
What we'll do: check-in on your Sustainable Ambition progress year-to-date and think about what you want to do in this final quarter of the year and perhaps into January of 2025 to be able to say, “This was a successful and sustainable year that I lived on my terms!”
📆 The date and time: Thursday, October 10 from 12-1 pm PT / 3-4 pm ET.
I hope to see you soon!
The Monthly Round-Up: You+Life+Work
Ideas on becoming consciously ambitious and thriving in life and work
Ways to Fuel Us
📚 Reading: Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down by Corey Keyes.
A book by Emory University sociologist Corey Keyes that breaks down the concept of languishing so we know how to take ownership and be proactive in helping us flourish. He shares a toolkit for flourishing: Learn and grow, Connect and build relationships, Transcend the plot twists of life, Find purpose even in the mundane, and Play.
🎙️ Listening: Create everyday vitality and build resilience.
A dated, but valuable conversation I just listened to with Dr. Samantha Boardman, author of Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength. It's a good complement to the Languishing book. Both the conversation and her book offer good tips for creating our own vitality and fostering our resilience day-to-day.
🎥 Watching: Prioritize connection.
A conversation with Simon Sinek and Trevor Noah on the importance and power of friendship.
The Sustainable Ambition Podcast
🎙️ E141: Sustaining Ambition: Insights From France with Sandra Fillaudeau
Hear from coach and consultant Sandra Fillaudeau, who lives and works in France and whose work tackles questions of work-life integration, gender balance, and sustainable living, shares what challenges French professionals typically face with work-life integration, how those issues are reflected cross-culturally, and what shifts individuals and organizations can make to help us better navigate the dynamic nature of our lives with work in the modern world.
Listen on your favorite player here or on our website here
You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, and more. Get it here.
“Balance is not a state; it’s a quest.”
— Sandra Fillaudeau, founder of Conscious Cultures and creator of Les Équilibristes podcast