Girls got goals! We set the sky as our limit, and damn it, we’re out there reaching for it. This era of women in the workforce has evolved into women busting through those glass ceilings. But what happens when your ambitions still leave you feeling empty or unfulfilled? Historically, society has not been the kindest to ambitious women. We broke the mold of the cookie-cutter housewife challenging that norm. Add in the bonus challenge of being made to feel apologetic for wanting a career and more.
Working towards a goal can lead to a disconnect from desires and true ambitions. Coming out on the other side of the pandemic life has given many people cause to re-evaluate what their ambitions are. If you feel limited or weighed down by it, it may be time to look inward and find out your true motivations.
Find Your Why
The most important thing to establish is your why. What do you want, and why do you want it? What does success mean to you? Figuring out what matters to you will help give you a renewed drive. Do you want to have money? Do you want the title and leadership? Are you hoping to have a new and improved work-life balance? Is it a more socially driven cause that you are craving? Feel free to say what you want, even if it drastically differs from your original plan. Own whatever it is that will motivate you. It will only hold meaning if you are working towards your why.
What Is Success?
Ambitions are often equated with the end game. As women, we are taught that success only comes when we reach those big, hairy goals. Success, however, can truly be found in the journey. There is so much growth that happens in the process. That could be why you still feel something missing despite being a career woman. Maybe the original goal wasn’t IT, and you need to rethink new ambitions.
Control
You may have been doing the grind for a while and still haven’t found that feeling of success. Or you have reached that top career level but are finding that it isn’t all it is cracked up to be. You still don’t feel in control as much as you wanted. They say the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but maybe in this instance, it is. Your original ambitions might need to evolve. If you aren’t feeling the right amount of control and flexibility in your current role, there might be something more suitable for what your soul craves.
Finding Work-Life Balance
As women, we’ve been told we can’t have it all. There is an unwritten, taboo topic: if you want to become top-level in your career, you must sacrifice in other areas. What if you spent time doing exactly that…being a career woman, and now that isn’t working for you? There is no shame in scaling back if the original career trajectory no longer serves you. You are entitled to change your mind however many times you want. Your new ambitions can be something other than fully career oriented. Shifting the focus to outside matters and reducing the career burden is an option. Go spend more time with family and friends. Take the trip. Start the family. Build your own business. Your new career ambition could be to do what makes you happy.
If you feel stuck in a rut or that your current role is no longer serving you, make an appointment for counseling for women to assess your current career goals and ambitions with me today.
