Welcome to the June edition of The Inbox Coach. This month I’ve chosen a topic which many people will have strong feelings about and that is ambition.
The topic I’ve chosen for this month is ambition. Like the word success, I think ambition has lots of meaning attached to it. For some people it will be a negative word, with ambition being about a fight for promotion and putting work above anything else. For others it will be a driving force that helps them to succeed in what they do.
Your personal ambition
Whatever you think of the word, I believe we can actually define it on our own terms. I looked up the definition and really liked this one…
“a strong desire to do or achieve something.”
Having ambition doesn’t mean you have to reach the top of your chosen profession or put your career before everything else in your life, it’s about choosing a career that works for you and taking steps to making it happen. It’s about being intentional with your career choices and not just blindly turning up to work each day.
Focusing on what is important to you
I used to be afraid of the word ambition. I think I partly didn’t believe in myself, and I was also afraid of having a big dream for my career and then failing at it. What I’ve learnt is that I am more capable than I know. I have done things in my career in recent years that 10 or 15 years ago would have seemed so far out of reach. For me, a big part of ambition is being comfortable saying I want to do more in my career. More might be a small change to how I work or something bigger, but it’s that focus and desire to continue to grow.
My ambition is to create a career I love, that supports me financially, allows me to have a positive impact on other people and to find joy in the everyday of my work. I don’t want to feel stressed at work, I want to feel good and that I’m bringing the best of myself to whatever task I’m doing. All this is driven by burning out at work and never wanting to feel that way again.
Reflection
*If you can’t do the exercises from this email now, then don’t forget to pick a time when you are going to do them and add this email to your calendar
Your ambitions might be big or small. To be the next CEO of your organisation, to support your team members to feel good about what they do, to champion equality and fairness or to leave work on time. It doesn’t need to look like what you think it SHOULD look like, but instead be something that you are excited to work towards, something that has meaning for you. When you think about your version of ambition, think about these questions…
What does ambition mean to you?
What do you have a strong desire to achieve in your career?
How does it feel to reflect on your career goals and dreams?
What is stopping you from having an ambition for your career?
Action
I think it is important to have an ambition for your career. We spend so much time at work, that to do it without thought or intention seems like a wasted opportunity.
Task
At the heart of ambition is being intentional about how you show up at work. You won’t achieve your ambition by accident, it requires you to take lots of small actions consistently over time. Spend some time this week thinking about your ambitions for your career and identify one small thing you can be doing every day to help you get there
Inspiration
“Dreams don't show up on government surveys or school league tables, but they are the fuel that makes us want to get up and get on.” - Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock
As a young girl Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock wanted a telescope, and when she got one, she was disappointed by the poor quality of it. Seeking to get a better one she joined a telescope making class in Camden in North London, “There were lots of middle-aged blokes – they had large slabs of glass and they were just grinding away,” but she joined the class and built her first telescope. Maggie has had a passion for space since she was a child, and she has pursued that dream relentlessly despite really struggling at school.
There is a fantastic video from Made by Dyslexia where Maggie talks about how her dyslexia shaped her career choices. She realised that the written word was not a strength of hers, so she chose science subjects to study for her degrees and pursued a career in industry rather than academia to play to her strengths. Maggie has chosen to see the opportunity in a difficult situation, turning it into a strength. I love Maggie's passion and enthusiasm for science and learning and this quote is a reminder to take a step away from the things you are struggling with and focus on your dreams, your ambitions, the things you are passionate about, as that is how you will overcome your difficulties.
I’m excited to be reflecting on the topic of ambition this month. At many times in my career, I’ve kept my goals and dreams for my career small because I was afraid of failure and judgement. I know now that having an ambition that scares me just a little bit but also excites me is when I start to look for opportunities in my work that have brought me joy and success on my own terms. I hope that you are also able to take a look at your relationship with ambition and if like me you have been wary of it, you can explore some new ideas this month. I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on being ambitious in your career.
See you then
Laura
P.S. I’ve listed all the previous editions of The Inbox Coach emails on my website which you can find here. Each email has reflection questions and action tasks, so if you need to revisit a topic you can now browse them all in one place
