- by Sophie Pinkoski

In an age where we’re finally understanding and appreciating the importance of protecting our mental health in our professional lives, it might be time to reassess our relationship with our career ambitions. Ambition is aspirational for reaching your goals and your full potential. It can push you to continually aim higher and achieve more, but can often come at the expense of everything else in your life. Reaching your ultimate goals can feel hollow if you sacrifice your mental health to get there. What’s more, when chasing the next big thing, career ambition can come with constantly moving goal posts, paired with the paralysis of high expectations of perfectionism. By dedicating all your time and energy to your career ambitions, you can lose sight of other fulfilling aspects of your life that keep your wellness in check. If one aspect of your daily routine falls away, it can cause a knock-on effect. Often, if you sacrifice your exercise or sleep in favour of work, for instance, other healthy habits like eating well may go with it, which can ultimately lead to burn out and even larger physiological symptoms like headaches. For this reason, unchecked work ambition is far from sustainable in the long term. This is where mindfulness comes in.

Mindfulness is about finding calm and contentment in the present. This helps ground you in the reality of the moment by thoughtfully engaging with your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings and exploring how they impact how you emotionally react to your experiences.

Reflecting on your emotions lets you focus on the task at hand in a more intentional way, letting you compartmentalize your thoughts and divide your time and energy more effectively.

This in turn can play a key role in creating a healthy work-life integration that will keep your professional ambitions from taking over your personal life. However, mindfulness on its own can also have its drawbacks. Living entirely in the moment can lead to a short-sighted vision that fails to account for long-term planning. This lack of forward momentum can make you feel directionless. 

A relentless drive toward achieving success and a mindful focus on staying in the moment may seem counteractive to one another, but when harnessed in tandem, they can be incredibly complementary.  This is why finding a balance between ambition and mindfulness is so important– you can get the best of both worlds.

Here are reasons why striking a healthy balance between ambition and mindfulness is key:

Burnout–– Relentless, unchecked career ambition can come at the detriment of your mental health. In fact, fixating on work and reaching your goals can deplete your energy quicker, making it difficult to sustain your productivity. It may come as second nature to keep going nonstop if you find yourself on a roll, but taking breaks every few hours actually helps you decompress and come back to your work with a fresh perspective. Something as simple as a walk outside or fifteen minutes of breathing or meditation can clear your mind enough to keep you focused on the task at hand without mentally or physically burning yourself out.

Remember, achieving your goals is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to build something worthwhile.

Pace yourself accordingly and take time to celebrate your wins along the way so you can truly appreciate what you have accomplished before moving on to the next big step in your plans.

Productivity–– The harder you push yourself, the less focused you become over time. Focusing on one thing for several hours on end can erode your cognitive processing, negatively impacting your memory and creative problem-solving capacities. When this happens, your quality of work goes down, leading to a longer timeline than you initially expected. Mindfulness helps you stay present. Don't wait to reward yourself with a break or treat for when you think you deserve it. Taking thoughtful breaks throughout your workday has actually been found to be more productive than saving your wellness routines for when you get home, as it helps you preserve your energy. Pausing to reflect helps you to not just process your emotional reactions to daily events, but also break down complex ideas, find clarity in questions you might have, and come to better, more creative solutions to challenges ahead of you.

When you break down your day into more manageable pieces, you can more clearly see how you can break down your goals as well.

This helps reduce anxiety over what you have yet to complete by making it seem like far less of a mammoth task. Splitting up your ambitions into smaller tasks makes anything seem possible.

Fulfillment–– When it comes to realizing our career ambitions, we can face monumental hurdles that can make us forget why we’re putting ourselves through all this work in the first place. Challenges like rejections and roadblocks out of our control can make working toward our goals feel like a thankless job. It’s important to regularly reflect on why you’re pursuing these goals in the first place. What positive affirmations are going to motivate you most to achieve your goals? This can often mean aligning your personal goals with your values, and your personal values with that of your organization. If you’re unsure where to start when defining your personal goals, take the time to assess what matters most to you. Your skills, passions, and hobbies will often be a good indicator of your passions. When your goals align with those passions, and more importantly, what brings you joy, your efforts toward those goals will be more meaningful to you.

The setbacks you experience may begin to feel more like natural steppingstones and opportunities for growth on your journey to realizing your ambitions when you are driven by a continuous sense of purpose leading to the other side.

When discovering your purpose for working toward these goals, it’s also crucial you understand you’re pursuing it for all the right reasons. Are you doing it because you find genuine value in it, or because it’s simply expected of you?  What’s more, external validation may not always be a consistent motivator. Internal motivators will be more sustainable in the long run, as you can remain self-driven and independent of other people’s schedules and expectations that may not align with yours.

Balancing career ambition with wellness helps you achieve your successes in an authentic way that feels fulfilling, sustainable, purposeful, and intentional. Ambition should be something that drives you, not deplete or paralyze you. A focus on your overall health provides that much needed grounding to keep your ambitions from becoming overwhelming, including clarifying your boundaries. Nurturing your wellbeing alongside your aspirations creates a solid foundation for not just achieving, but striving and thriving, thus allowing you to reach your goals without losing yourself in the process.

Further Reading:

Balancing High Ambitions With Consistent Self-Care, Forbes

Balancing Ambition and Mental Health: How to Set Realistic Career Goals, Skill Up

Balancing Ambition and Well-Being: Strategies for Achieving Success Without Mental Health Consequences, Life Planner

High Achievers Are Often Addicted to Ambition—and Risking Their Health. Here’s What to Do About It, Fortune

Balancing Ambition and Self-Care: Nurturing Personal Well-Being on the Path to Success, LinkedIn

Striking The Balance: How To Be Ambitious And Mindful, Better Help

Mental Health in Entrepreneurship: Balancing Ambition and Well-being, The Successful Founder