At the end of the day, my biggest ambitions are making and keeping friends and having fun. Hence, I'm not earning a lot of money. I feel like I have no extrinsic motivation. This feels important to survive in modern society. I've always admired you and your success, darling.
Love your history lesson. I’ve been down the patriarchy rabbit hole for quite some time now…it explains so much about our conditioning, especially as women. I enjoyed learning more about your story.
I keep coming back to the idea of taking ambition back. I’m not sure I want to surrender the word. What if the work is to reclaim it—to let ambition hold the whole life we want, rather than only the professional ladder we were taught to climb? That feels especially important for women who haven’t lost their drive so much as become more discerning about what deserves it.
I hear you - the etymology of it all made me realize that it was never something we owned in the first place — maybe not reclaim as much as rebrand? :)
Yes — and now you’ve got me thinking about authorship more than reclamation. Who gets to decide what ambition means, and what do we want the word to hold now? I’m curious where you land.
This argument isn't even anti-ambition, but a call for deep reflection and internal alignment as a base - ambition that serves your own vision vs. anyone else's. Beyond that, be ambitious af! Call it ambition, call it whatever you desire.
This hit home, Rebecca: "When high achievers say they’ve “lost their drive,” they haven’t lost their capacity to work hard. They’ve just run out of the cheap, dirty fuel of external validation."
My entire career has run on that cheap, dirty fuel. Once I became aware of it a whole world of possibility started to open up. Now I'm on the path of reinventing my work in the world. Great article, thanks!
Thank you so much for reading! I feel like the system is set up to convince us that is the only fuel available - the realization that it’s not is a LIFE pivot, not just a career pivot. I love that you’re there!
At the end of the day, my biggest ambitions are making and keeping friends and having fun. Hence, I'm not earning a lot of money. I feel like I have no extrinsic motivation. This feels important to survive in modern society. I've always admired you and your success, darling.
Success is relative and ambition is a scam! be free! :)
Thank you for this. 🙏🏾
Glad it resonated. Thank you for reading!
Love this, Rebecca. Ruthless alignment is what I am aiming for in my life!
Thank you so much for reading!
Love your history lesson. I’ve been down the patriarchy rabbit hole for quite some time now…it explains so much about our conditioning, especially as women. I enjoyed learning more about your story.
BIG TIME! Thanks so much for reading!
I keep coming back to the idea of taking ambition back. I’m not sure I want to surrender the word. What if the work is to reclaim it—to let ambition hold the whole life we want, rather than only the professional ladder we were taught to climb? That feels especially important for women who haven’t lost their drive so much as become more discerning about what deserves it.
I hear you - the etymology of it all made me realize that it was never something we owned in the first place — maybe not reclaim as much as rebrand? :)
Yes — and now you’ve got me thinking about authorship more than reclamation. Who gets to decide what ambition means, and what do we want the word to hold now? I’m curious where you land.
This argument isn't even anti-ambition, but a call for deep reflection and internal alignment as a base - ambition that serves your own vision vs. anyone else's. Beyond that, be ambitious af! Call it ambition, call it whatever you desire.
This hit home, Rebecca: "When high achievers say they’ve “lost their drive,” they haven’t lost their capacity to work hard. They’ve just run out of the cheap, dirty fuel of external validation."
My entire career has run on that cheap, dirty fuel. Once I became aware of it a whole world of possibility started to open up. Now I'm on the path of reinventing my work in the world. Great article, thanks!
Thank you so much for reading! I feel like the system is set up to convince us that is the only fuel available - the realization that it’s not is a LIFE pivot, not just a career pivot. I love that you’re there!
ok this was interesting
ok thanks! :)
This is such an interesting way to view ambition. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for reading!
ahhh. this is so good. omg.
"the etymology of a SCAM." REBECCA!
from ambition to ruthless alignment. YES.
This comment made my day.