Sustainable Ambition

Much as we often find ourselves asking “what now” at the culmination of an ambition, the start of a new year is also a time when many of us wonder how best to move forward.

For the third episode of our Ambition In-Between series, I want to build on what I’ve shared about the unexpected outcomes and mixed emotions that show up at the completion of a big ambition, and talk about how to move forward when we’re not totally certain what’s next. 

Over the last year, I’ve...

I continue my Ambition In Between series by exploring something many of us experience but don’t always name: the mixed emotions that surface after completing a big ambition. I look at why conflicting feelings show up, what they might be pointing to, and how we can work with them instead of against them.

Toward the end of the episode, I offer several sets of reflection questions to help you review your year, make sense of the emotional complexity that may have surfaced over the past twelve months, and consider what you want to carry into 2026. 

W...

What does it mean to live a creative life? How can creative pursuits support us in being ambitious and living sustainably?

Fostering creativity, innovation, and visual thinking can boost our ability to see and enact new or different ways of working and living. Laura Holson offers insights on integrating creativity into our lives, why so many of us come back to creative pursuits in midlife and beyond, and how creative practices sustain us for the long term.

Learn more about Laura Holson:

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Since the June release of my first book, Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work, a number of people have asked me how it feels to have achieved this big ambition. Have I checked that box and moved on to something different? Or am I percolating another book idea?

Over the last few months, I’ve been mulling over and researching those questions. Today’s episode kicks off a new series exploring how we navigate the ups and downs of our ambitions, and what happens if we don’t end...

What if the future of work isn’t about technology but about being more human?

That’s the question at the heart of my conversation with Dr. Natalie Nixon, creativity strategist and author of Move, Think, Rest: Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship with Time.

Natalie believes we’re not in a technology revolution. We’re in a human revolution. In this new era, imagination, curiosity, and creativity aren’t luxuries or “nice to have.” They’re strategic advantages. But to access them, we have to rethink how we work and how we rest.

Lea...

Hard work isn’t a bad thing, even when we’re seeking sustainability. The trick is to put hard work into what actually matters to make progress and meet our goals.

If you want to advance in your career, focusing on performance metrics alone won’t lead to success. In today’s conversation, leading visibility coach Susan Barber shares how visibility is an essential piece of making the impact you want to make and offers practical steps for shaping how you show up at work.

Learn more about Susan Barber:<...

If we want work to work better for us, we need meaningful work. But that doesn’t mean we have to choose between what’s good for individuals and what’s good for our organizations.

In this episode, Wes Adams and Tamara Myles dig into why meaningful work matters, why we need to shift away from downstream metrics like engagement, and three essential focus areas for fostering meaningful work. And as they share, becoming meaning-driven leaders doesn’t have to be overwhelming, rather it invites us to be intentional about creating moments of meaning for thos...

Our work and our finances are inextricably linked. Our financial wellness impacts how we view our work and shapes the choices and trade-offs we make, whether we’re aware of it or not.

Return guest Dana Miranda joins me to discuss how embracing the link between financial wellness and our work can actually help us find more flexibility and peace in our choices as we navigate the inevitable ebb and flow of energy and ambition in our lives.

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A “popular” metric people like to look at is employee engagement. But I’ve always thought this data isn’t that useful and have wondered if this is the best data point to focus on to understand how people really feel about their work. 

But if not this metric, where do we focus instead? 

My guest today, Mark C. Crowley, argues that we need to “lead with both mind and heart” to create environments where employees feel supported and like they belong. And why the way we manage people today is unsus...

Knowing that our work matters is a fundamental human need. But so many organizations and leaders struggle to help people feel that their work is worthy of the effort they put in.

My guest today, Zach Mercurio, invites us to explore the fundamental role of work in our lives.  In this crisis moment when more and more people feel negatively about work, mattering is an essential antidote to apathy and disconnection.

Learn more about Zach Mercurio:

When we ask ourselves, what is the role of work in our lives, there are often two camps: Work is just work or find your passion in your work. 

But most of us want to find the middle ground between those extremes. 

Today, I’m revisiting the question of the role work plays in our lives, and how we can make work work better for us. Workplace culture expert Bree Groff joins me to talk about how we can bring more humanity and fun to our work. After all, we s...

I’m flipping the mic again and being interviewed by my friend and past guest, Neha Mandhani, about the journey of writing and publishing my book, Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work. 

In this conversation, I reflect on the vulnerable, imperfect process of writing and releasing the book because Sustainable Ambition isn’t a magic wand that will give any of us all the answers, it’s a journey of ups and downs that I am on right alongside all of you.

Learn m...

In this episode, I share conversations that informed the Sustainable Ambition method and appear in my book, Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work. 

I wanted to revisit these segments with Heather Ainsworth, Dr. Sahar Yousef, and Jack Hsueh because they are wonderful examples of the pillars of Right Ambition, Right Time, and Right Effort and how they align to create Sustainable Ambition.

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As of this recording, Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work has been out in the world for two weeks and I’ve been so gratified to hear from readers and reviewers that the book and its principles are resonating and that they’re already putting it to use.

This episode is a continuation of my conversation with Dr. Dawn Graham about Sustainable Ambition. Here we dive deeper into the practical aspects of the method and how you can apply them in your own life. 

...

Before we can step into Sustainable Ambition, we first have to challenge what we’ve been taught to believe about success and ambition.

Today I’m sharing an excerpt of the audiobook for Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work. Chapter Two, “ Reclaim Personal Success and Ambition as Your Own,” breaks down why you need to define success on your own terms and offers a broader, more freeing way to think about ambition.

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In this special episode of Sustainable Ambition, I’m doing something different. I’m stepping out of the host seat and into the hot seat!

To celebrate the launch of my new book, Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work, Dr. Dawn Graham — corporate psychologist and career coach — joins me as guest host to flip the mic and interview me about the ideas behind the book, my personal journey, and what it really means to pursue ambition sustainably.

This conversation is a personal and heartfelt look into why I do...

When we encounter a conflict or constraint that prompts us to question our current path, how do we determine our new way forward?

After a long career with Procter & Gamble, including a senior leadership role in R&D, Ashish Chatterjee hit a surprising and painful inflection point — one that challenged everything he thought he knew about success.

Ashish’s story is a masterclass in leading through challenges, finding your center again, and building a second act (whether inside or outside a company) with purpose. Whether you’re facing a transition, rethinking your metrics for a mean...

What does it look like to live your ambition sustainably, with joy, intention, and wholeness?

In this episode, I’m joined by Erica Meade, a former tech leader who made an unexpected and inspiring pivot — from product design work to making miniatures, co-founding a startup, and redefining what “work” means on her own terms.

Whether you’re at a crossroads, recovering from burnout, or just seeking inspiration to reconnect with your own joy, this episode offers a refreshing, honest look at ambition done differently.

Learn more about Erica Mead...

In this deeply resonant conversation, I sit down with Moe Carrick — author, consultant, and advocate for more human-centered workplaces — to explore the role of work in our lives and what it really takes for people to thrive.

Moe brings both research and lived experience to the table, sharing the seven human needs we bring to work, how they shift over time, and why we must move beyond the “ideal worker” and “perfect mother” myths. She challenges conventional narratives about ambition, wellbeing, and gender roles, and calls for a new kind of partnership between employers and employees. Moe outlines...

How we think about and plan our time matters, especially if we want to focus on the ambitions and goals in life and work that truly matter to us.

My guest, Laura Vanderkam, has been studying time management for over fifteen years. In our conversation, she offers a fresh perspective on common narratives about how much time we have and how we use it. Her approach is both optimistic and practical, with concrete tools and insights to put into your own practice of managing your time.

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As leaders, we have to ask ourselves, how can we create more sustainability for ourselves and our teams?

Among the challenges modern leaders face are the emotional demands of their roles, whether we want to acknowledge emotions in the workplace or not.

Dina Denham Smith joins me to dig into the myths and misperceptions around how emotions impact workplaces, why we can’t keep ignoring emotions at work, and how leaders can better navigate being there for their team members in a meaningful way.

Le...

As the Sustainable Ambition podcast reaches its 150th episode, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey and the invaluable insights shared by various guests on the show. 

The podcast has consistently explored the concept of Sustainable Ambition, exploring how to be ambitious without sacrificing yourself or your life. But the scope and lens of the show has also expanded to reconsider and rethink conventional narratives about success and ambition, and crafting new ways of living and working that bring personal success and satisfaction, sustainably.

This m...

How can we pursue our ambitions without sacrificing our lives or ourselves in the process?

It’s easy to get overextended while following our passions, but we can use those moments to learn our limits and what we need to do in order to sustain ourselves for the long term. 

In this episode, I talk with Cheri Magid about her art and how creative practices can help us live and work in more fulfilling and satisfying ways.

Cheri leads a full, ambitious, creative life and...

So far this year, my guests and I have been discussing how we can do things differently through experimentation, creativity, and innovation to optimize our life and work for personal success, satisfaction, and sustainability.

I’ve often focused on what we can do individually to ensure sustainability in our life and work, because we can’t rely solely on outside forces to do so. But as Dr. Richard Safeer points out, we have to both take personal responsibility and we need support from those around us, including our organizations, to truly shape a happier, heal...

At the beginning of the year, it can feel like we have to go all-in right away toward our goals. But it’s important, maybe even essential, to pace ourselves.

Today, Merideth Mehlberg returns to dive into how we can optimize our work, not with a full steam ahead press, but by stepping into our own knowing, listening to our bodies, simplifying, and embracing ease, experimentation, and evolution. It’s a more sustainable approach to start the year.

Learn more about Merideth Mehlberg:

If we want our experience of work and life to be different, we have to be willing to find new solutions and do things differently. We have to be able to innovate and evolve.

I am joined by Dr. Amy Climer to discuss how we can apply that kind of creative thinking and problem solving to designing our work and life. We talk about how we might design work and life in a way that will make it more personally satisfying, successful, and sustainable with deliberate creativity. Creativity is a tool and a resource...

Let's start this year by exploring how we can live and work differently for more personal success, satisfaction, and sustainability. 

This complements my last episode that closed out 2024 where I talked about how approaching uncertainty and complexity with a sense of hope, joy, and wonder can help us embrace our agency over our goals and ambitions even in tenuous times. 

Today, neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff joins me to talk about her new book and how bringing curiosity and experimentation to your goals can not only help you to fully embrace your ambition wi...

At this time of the year, many of us are taking time to reflect, consider what we’ve learned, and determine what to take with us into the new year. 

In this episode, I share two major themes that I’ve been coming back to throughout 2024. I offer my reflections on embracing uncertainty and complexity and how both can benefit us on our journeys of Sustainable Ambition. I also share questions for you to consider as you look back on 2024 and where embracing uncertainty and complexity might take you in 2025.

Duration: 00:26:49

Many of us want to make a positive impact and gain fulfillment with the work we do. 

Caroline Ouwerkerk is a career and leadership coach who works with people in the social impact space to help them find their purpose and pursue it sustainably. 

Today, Caroline shares the structures she has put in place for herself to help her disconnect from work, how she models sustainable leadership, how to think about right-sizing our efforts, and the importance of connecting with community.

Learn more about Ca...

How can we sustain our engagement in our work and make our careers regenerative?

Continuing the series of conversations about managing our work ambitions over time and at different stages of leadership, I’m joined today by Aybala Şimşek Galpin, CEO of the Turkish bank, Şekerbank.

Aybala’s story illustrates how our environment and cultural context shape our ambitions. Her career path also shows that alignment of meaning and motivation can sustain us even through periods of intense effort.

Learn more about Aybala Şimşek Ga...

Learning to embrace leadership and think intentionally about the kind of leader we want to be is important, regardless of where we are in our careers. It’s relevant whether we’re leading a whole team or just ourselves.

Today, Pete Steinberg and I dig into what it means to be a leader and to step into that role.

If you’re starting a new leadership role at work, it may be time to rethink your leadership approach and consider the kind of leader you want to be in order...

How do we stay engaged with our careers and make them feel sustainable and regenerative for the long haul?

Today, master coach Merideth Mehlberg introduces common traps that keep us feeling stuck and dissatisfied at work, shares what gets us to the point where we can take action for change, plus offers reassurance that finding more fulfillment isn’t as arduous as it may seem at the outset.

Learn more about Merideth Mehlberg:

If you are a workaholic or have workaholic tendencies, you are not alone. Many of us struggle with overwork and assessing the right amount of effort to put towards our ambitions and priorities, without going overboard.

Today, Dr. Malissa Clark, author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It, joins me for a conversation about workaholism and overwork, what drives it, why more people are struggling with it, and what organizations and individuals can do about it. 

Learn more about Mal...

What is work? And what is the role of work in our lives?

For many Americans, work is a primary source of meaning and identity. But what if you embraced a more holistic identity?

Today, I’m in conversation with Simone Stolzoff, author of The Good Enough Job, about the roles of work in our modern lives. Simone invites us to embrace more sides of ourselves as we write our stories and, through a broader lens on identity, be more intentional about the role of our work and the am...

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 norms and structures around work. 

But what if the challenges of navigating life and work in the modern world are more pervasive than we think? 

France-based coach and consultant Sandra Fillaudeau joins me to dig into the challenges French professionals 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 dy...

Sustainable Ambition is a practice and a journey that is ever-changing and each of our journeys is unique to us.

In this episode, I reflect on the Summer Book Series, how I was impacted by the concepts I shared in those episodes, and what I have been learning about Sustainable Ambition over the last several months.

I also want to share updates on where I am in my own journey of Sustainable Ambition, not just based on the books, but a view of how I am doing with sustaining...

Part of pursuing Sustainable Ambition is examining how we can live our lives more fully, and with more purpose, without sacrificing ourselves.

Today’s guest, speaker and author, Jodi Wellman, calls us to look death in the face in order to become more alive. And while this might sound dour or heavy, it really isn’t.

Jodi shares her philosophy for crafting a life well-lived, and it doesn’t always require us to make huge changes in our lives. Small things, done in service of our needs, preferences, and goals...

We hear a lot about resilience these days. We say people who overcome obstacles and challenges in life and work must be so resilient. But is that the only way to build our resilience muscles? What does it mean to build resilience in practice?

Building resilience is essential to Sustainable Ambition, both to grow in and navigate our careers over time, and to create the lives we desire and sustain ourselves in the process. 

Today I’m joined again by Luis Velasquez to dig into how we build the res...

Over the months of June and July episodes, I’ve been sharing books that have delighted me. Some of them have been written by past guests, while others are new books that have really inspired me to think more deeply about sustainability. 

My hope in sharing these books with you is that you’ll be inspired, as I was, and think differently about how you operate this summer. Through this summer book series, perhaps you’ll start asking important questions, like, “Well, what do I really want? What is enough? What is worth it? Where mig...

This summer and over the June and July episodes, I am sharing books that have really delighted me. Some of them have been written by past guests, while others are new books that have really inspired me to think more deeply about sustainability. 

My hope in sharing these books with you is that you’ll be inspired, as I was, and think differently about how you operate this summer. Through this summer book series, perhaps you’ll start asking important questions, like, “Well, what do I really want? What is enough? What is worth it? Where might I be se...

Over the months of June and July, I will be sharing books that have really delighted me. Some of them have been written by past guests, while others are new books that have really inspired me to think more deeply about sustainability. 

My hope in sharing these books with you is that you’ll be inspired, as I was, and think differently about how you operate this summer. Through this summer book series, perhaps you’ll start asking important questions, like, “Well, what do I really want? What is enough? What is worth it? Where might I be sett...

This summer and over the four episodes in June and July, I will be sharing books that have really delighted me. Some of them have been written by past guests, while others are new books that have inspired me to think more deeply about sustainability. 

My hope in sharing these books with you is that you will be inspired, as I was, and think differently about how you operate this summer. Through this summer book series, perhaps you’ll start asking important questions, like, “Well, what do I really want? What is enough? What is wo...

How can the arts support our ability to thrive and flourish in life and work?

As part of my continuing conversations about creativity and how it intersects with Sustainable Ambition, I’m talking with Dr. Tasha Golden about the role of art in our evolution and its power to help us express ourselves more fully. 

We also discuss the dangers of “robotic” behavioral norms to our physical and mental wellbeing and how reimagining identity as an evolving narrative rather than a fixed point can help us let go of (some of...

If asked, most of us would likely say that we want to live with a sense of meaning and purpose. But how many of us truly put that intention front and center in how we make choices for ourselves? 

In this episode, I’m continuing conversations that explore how creative practices can help us come to a deeper understanding of our ambitions and support us as we seek to live and work in meaningful ways.

Podcast executive producer and audio artist, Emily Shaw, joins me to talk about her pur...

Can engaging in creative practices help us on our journey of Sustainable Ambition? Can we apply creative practices to live and work in more fulfilling and satisfying ways?

To begin answering those questions, I am joined today by Doug Neill, founder of Verbal to Visual.

Doug and I discussed the impact of visual thinking and how it can unlock creativity and improve comprehension. Doug believes that even if you don’t consider yourself creative you can discover doodling and sketchnoting as a powerful thinking tool. We also talked ab...

Do you have a hard time allowing your ambitions to shift and change? Do you feel uncomfortable when at times you don’t feel as committed to your ambitions? 

I want to challenge these dominant narratives about success and ambition. So today, I’m digging into why evolving ambitions are inevitable, and even desirable, and offer three alternative ways to reframe ambition so it is sustainable over the course of our lives. 

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Are you afraid to ask yourself what you really, really want?

Today’s guest presents a compelling example of what it looks like to live boldly, with intention and imagination, from the inside out.

Bonnie Wan joins me to discuss the journey of developing The Life Brief and expanding it from her own personal practice to something she now teaches others and brought to life in her new book, why you have to get messy to get clarity, and how to courageously create the life you want.

Duration: 00:43:31

Having support structures in place is vital to sustaining our life and work ambitions particularly as we transition through different life stages.

Entrepreneurs and people who are self-employed have an acute need for strong support structures because they tend to wear all the hats and stretch themselves too thin. Add in pregnancy and childbirth, and the need for strong support systems is even more intense for women entrepreneurs managing and running their businesses while also caring for new life and recovering from birth.

As part of my periodic series...

We all have ambitions for both our personal and professional lives. The question is how do we pursue them sustainably and with resilience so we can get fulfillment and joy from both. 

In this new post-pandemic environment, we need new ideas, narratives, and models to consider and to test for ourselves.

As part of a new periodic series, I’m speaking with people from a variety of disciplines about how they live and work. In today’s conversation with Ashley Donahey, we’ll touch on how personal and professional dreams...

If you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed or burned out, you’re not alone. But rather than push or grind through it as so many of us try to do, today’s guest offers a different approach: a resilience plan.

In this conversation, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier and I talk about consciously building a resilience plan so that we can operate at our best and achieve our goals and ambitions without burning out.

Learn more about Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier:

As we leave January behind, many of us are still in the process of figuring out what we want out of this year. And it’s not uncommon to long for a clear path forward as we do.

That desire for clarity can put us on a path of aiming for what we should be doing or pursuing. But if our ambitions are going to be sustainable, we have to make them our own.

Living with the ambiguity as we define our own ambitions can be a challenge. Today, I...

The world of work is changing. And it’s not just about what industries are growing or shrinking. Attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and motivations around work are all shifting.

Connie Steele joins me today to discuss the fluid future of work and what it will take to succeed at leading ourselves and others in 2024 and beyond.

Learn more about Connie Steele

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Welcome to 2024!

As we look to a new year, I’m offering some ideas and reflections to set the tone as you craft the year ahead.

I  talk about what the James Webb Space Telescope can teach us about shifting our own paradigms and give you several prompts to help you dial in your Sustainable Ambitions for 2024.

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As we end 2023, I’d like to offer a few prompts and reflections to help you stay grounded as you navigate this challenging time and head into 2024.

I truly believe that self-reflection is an important and powerful tool to help us learn about ourselves and craft a more positive and empowering narrative, with learning we can take forward into the future.

My hope is that these ideas and prompts will help you end your year with a little more peace.

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Give the gift of Sustainable Ambition: Check ou...

In today’s special episode, my dear friend Sonya Thomas turns the tables and interviews me.

We explore how the concept of Sustainable Ambition has evolved for me through the conversations I’ve had with my guests on the show and my research.  We discuss the  importance of defining success on personal terms, aligning ambitions with personal motivations, and the necessity of taking breaks. Sonya shares some of her own journey and experience with ambition and navigating career pivots, and I share updates on my book project.

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What does it mean to find home? How do we develop a sense of belonging, whether to a place, a community, or even to our work?

Today, I’ll dive into these questions and more with returning guest, Amy Bonsall.

We discuss making hard decisions feel lighter, why “squishy ground” is where the magic happens, and how building belonging helps us to flourish and create the life we want.

Learn more about Amy Bonsall:

How do we sustain a successful career over time? When we define ambition and success on our own terms, based on what’s important to us internally vs. an external yardstick, we can end up with a life and career that are fulfilling and sustainable. 

My guest today has embodied this approach in his long and successful corporate career and now in a new endeavor after retiring from his corporate role.

In this episode, Doug Milliken shares his career journey and how he shaped his roles to align with wha...

Crafting a fulfilling life and career is the work of a lifetime.

My guest today is Karyn Flynn. Karyn has built a varied resume, stepped back from her career to focus on her family, and pivoted in and out of multiple fields and roles. Her trajectory hasn’t been straight, but considering her purpose and values and continually leveraging her skills has allowed her to create a more fulfilling, sustainable career and life.

She shares how building confidence through your skills and not your title can bolster you through major transitions and why getting clear on...

In this episode, I’m joined by author and journalist Rainesford Stauffer.

We discuss her new book, All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive, what happens when ambition defines us, the conversations we should be having about ambition, and getting curious about ambition with a more expansive, holistic view.

Learn more about Guest

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Overwhelm can happen to anyone, even me.

We can set goals and priorities, and they can be the right ambitions, but managing a packed schedule takes intention and thought if we want to avoid burnout.

Today, I’m sharing some strategies that helped me make conscious decisions about how I was spending my time in pursuit of my goals during an active few months.

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How can we craft our goals in ways that actually support our well-being? How can we reduce frustration and, in turn, increase fulfillment as we pursue our goals?

Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Valerie Tiberius. Valerie’s work explores the ways in which philosophy and psychology contribute to the study of well-being and virtue.

Her most recent book, What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters has been especially relevant to the way I think about Sustainable Ambition, pursuing our goals, and navigating conflict around them...

Today, I’m in conversation with Ayelet Fishbach, an award-winning psychologist and prolific researcher on the science of motivation.

We discuss how motivation connects to both ambition and how to manage our goals. You’ll hear how we can make choices about where we want to pull ourselves and how to create the circumstances that best support our efforts. We also delve into the idea that it’s okay to be ambitious and try to do a lot in our lives, while also needing to hold our goals and ambitions lightly so that we can of...

What lies at the intersection of ambition and expectation? 

On today’s episode, I’m welcoming back Wade Brill to discuss just that. We start first by getting clear—what are definitions of ambitions, ambitious, and expectations? And how do we manage when expectations are present? 

Expectations are tricky to manage and can cause a lot of suffering. Wade shares practical advice for noticing when expectations are present and how we can have more compassion for ourselves as we navigate these intersections, and we talk about learning to work with exp...

How do we help the next generation define success on their own terms?

My guest, Irena Smith, offers wisdom and advice from her years of experience working with college applicants and her own life experience in her memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays.

Her book explores the college application process from the perspective of a parent, college counselor, and admissions officer. She challenges the societal expectations of success, especially for young people, and encourages parents to meet their children where they are and not to force them into pursuing a passion...

What can we learn about Sustainable Ambition from amazing women who are changing the world?

Today I’m talking with Lauren Schiller and Hadley Dynak about their new book, It's a Good Day to Change the World: Inspiration and Advice for a Feminist Future. 

The women in the book are taking on the seemingly intractable problems of our world and creating change one step at a time and there is so much we can learn from these stories and from the women who brought us the book.

...

It’s easy to get caught in the loop of looking to external markers of success and constantly striving toward ever-moving goalposts of what it means to be successful.

Today, I’m in conversation with the CEO of Hello!Lucky, Sabrina Moyle.

Sabrina shares her journey through founding the company with her sister, redefining success on her own terms, and the inner work she’s done to support creating a sustainable, creative, joyful life for herself and her family. We discuss finding our purpose in our day-to-day and she shares...

What is performance and what does it mean to perform?

For many, performance implies being inauthentic. But what if we defined performance as being wholly present, uninhibited by our fears, and unrestrained in expressing our instincts?

In today’s episode, I’m reflecting on my conversations with D’Arcy Webb and Charles Gilbert and on what it really means to perform, how it intersects with our goals and doing our best work, and how it impacts the way we show up for others.

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How do we sustain our ambition and creativity over time? Over a lifetime, even?

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Charles (Charlie) Gilbert, a lifelong creative, a writer, a composer, a director, and a teacher.

In this episode, Charlie talks about sustainable creative habits, how retirement has opened up new possibilities for his work, and his big ambitions for this chapter of his life. He also shares his perspective on defining success, particularly in an industry where rejection can be the norm, and the importance of support and partnership in pursuing creative goals.<...

Today, I’m in conversation with D’Arcy Webb.

D’Arcy is an award-winning speech and vocal coach with decades of experience and decades of sustained ambition. 

In this episode, D’Arcy talked about what it’s like to be ambitious at this stage of her life and how she’s able to sustain her drive. She also talked about the power of using your voice, no matter your age, and how stepping into that kind of power can change your life. 

Learn more about D’Arcy Webb:

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What is sustainable? What is ambition?

What happens when you put these two seemingly incongruous words together?

Some people think they are mutually exclusive, but I disagree. 

In this episode, I dive into what I mean by each of these terms with a hope that you can better understand that these two words can live together, making you a believer in Sustainable Ambition, too.

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Today, I’m in conversation with Olga Trusova, author of the new design book, Calm Living: Simple Design Transformations to Fill Your Space with Tranquility.

Olga introduces us to design thinking principles and exercises that we can use to design our spaces and experiences so they work better for us and support us in doing our best work.

This is an invitation to make simple, accessible design choices to make your days more sustainable. Olga shows us how to do this with intention and experimentation.

Thanks for Listening!

If you liked th...

Today, I’m in conversation with Olga Trusova, author of the new design book, Calm Living.

In this episode, Olga introduces us to design thinking principles and exercises that we can use to design our spaces and experiences so they work better for us and support us in doing our best work.

She offers accessible ways to shape your space and how you work to really work for you, not against you, and to create calm instead of chaos.

This is an invitation to make simple, accessible design choices to make yo...

Today I'm in conversation with Christina Wallace, author of the new book, The Portfolio Life: How to Futureproof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card.

Charles Handy coined the term Portfolio Life in 1989 to argue that your life’s work shouldn’t be defined by one job, but that it could be a collection of passions, interests, and hobbies. 

Christina expands that definition to include relationships, community, personal growth and impact, creating a full portfolio across work and life. 

In the episode, you’ll hear how the portfoli...

Today, I’m joined by Jessica Marati Radparvar.

Jessica serves as inspiration as someone who is practicing Sustainable Ambition, crafting a life with work that works for her. In Jessica modeling this for us, it makes it feel more possible for all of us to thrive in life and work.

Jessica works in the field of sustainability, and regularly sees firsthand how building resilience is critical for impact practitioners who carry the weight of, and champion, making change in the world. As she says, “You can’t drive change from an empty cup.”

Today...

In today's episode, I'm joined by Dana Miranda.

Dana is the author of the forthcoming book, You Don't Need A Budget, and her work brings visibility and voice to the diverse experiences we have with money and finance that aren't currently being recognized and expressed in our culture.

You might find for yourself that traditional financial and money management tips don't resonate with you, and Dana is offering new perspective through her media company, Healthy Rich.

What you'll hear in today's conversation is how our work is inextricably tied to money...

Almost all of us know what it’s like to struggle to stay focused and get work done. And so many of us are plagued by feeling too busy. It’s hard to find time to do all we want or need to do, yet I wonder if part of our busyness problem is actually a distraction problem.

In his book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, Nir Eyal writes about the idea of, “people making time for what they want by making a conscious effort to control their time and attention.”

So of...

During the pandemic, the cultural tides around work ambition turned. People were over their ambitions.

Consider these stats: In 2022, Gartner found that more than 50% of surveyed workers said they were questioning the purpose of their jobs and the role work should play in their lives. Also in 2022, the Mckinsey Health Institute found that one in four employees experienced burnout symptoms. And in mid-2022, 29% of employees who resigned from their jobs said they did so for better work-life balance, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Maybe you recognize yourself in one of those numbers. <...

Introducing The Sustainable Ambition Podcast.
 

Host Kathy Oneto talks with experts, authors, and friends with insight on her philosophy to life and work focused on three concepts: Right Ambition, Right Time, and Right Effort. 

On the podcast, Kathy shares ideas for navigating your career at different stages of life and work. You’ll learn to define your own success. You’ll embrace a consciously ambitious approach to better align life and work. And no matter what you choose to take on, you’ll have the resilience to tackle the challenge and the practices you need to...

Are you called to honor more than one side of yourself in your life and work? Then this episode is for you! You, too, might be an ampersand. Or perhaps we all could be if we weren’t forced to choose.

What is an ampersand you might ask? Meet Jessica Wan, an ampersand herself and host of The Ampersand Manifesto podcast. Jessica explains ampersands as those who are multi-passionate, lead double lives, and straddle two completely different worlds.

In this conversation, learn more about Jessica’s experience working in two worlds (a career in business and...

Tricia Montalvo Timm is a board director, venture investor, speaker, and author. She is also a first-generation Latina and one of the few to have attained the triple achievement of reaching the C-suite, joining the boardroom, and cracking the venture capital ceiling.

Today we discuss her new book, “Embrace the Power of You,” which is for those who are code-switching or struggling to belong in the corporate landscape and for those of us who want to support creating inclusive environments. Tricia shares her own journey of self-acceptance to show others how they can do the same. The book...

“I feel very ambitious even though on the outside my ambition may look very different, but it feels like ambition on my terms.” Yes! That sounds like Sustainable Ambition—ambition that’s rooted in you and on your terms.

Today I’m joined by Neha Mandhani, a certified executive leadership coach, for an open, honest conversation on what it’s like to listen and honor oneself, to move through the discomfort of choosing self-authorship, and to step out of the norm onto a path that aligns to your integrity and purpose. Neha is someone who has explored her multiple...

When we pause, more is happening than we think. Host Kathy Oneto shares three examples to inspire you to practice your own pauses. When and where will you allow yourself to take a break of any length?

Resources Mentioned

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a voice note, ideas for what you’d like to hear on the podcast, or a question that might be read and answered here on the podcast! Go to https://bit.ly/sapodcast-ask

Dr. Rick Hanson and his HEAL Method: https://www.rickhanson.net/possible-heal/

Today host Kathy Oneto jumps back into time and how the concept of time factors into Sustainable Ambition. We can’t do it all at once across life and work, so what it is time for now? Kathy offers three concepts and explorations considering the Future, Past, and Present to help you determine what it is time for now in your life and work.

Resources Mentioned

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a voice note, ideas for what you’d like to hear on the podcast, or a question that might be read a...

Or simply send an email here: podcast@SustainableAmbition.com 

Sign up for my curated bi-weekly Sustainable Ambition Forum newsletter at: https://sustainableambition.com/subscribe

Inspired by the ambition of astronauts, host Kathy Oneto invites you to consider what it might look like to dial in your ambitions. Do you have big ambitions? Small ambitions? Just right ambitions—just right for you? Explore what it might look like to play with dialing in your ambitions to be the right aspiration for you and aligned to the right effort.

Resources Mentioned

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a voice note, ideas for what you’d like to hear on the podcast, or a question that might be read and an...

In this first episode of 2023, host Kathy Oneto talks about how you might want to start your year. Are you someone who wants to blast off or would you rather push off? What will support you best as you step into the new year?

Resources Mentioned

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a voice note with a topic of interest or a question that might be read and answered here on the podcast! Go to https://bit.ly/sapodcast-ask

NASA and the James Webb Telescope: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

In this episode, Kathy Oneto, founder of Sustainable Ambition, closes out the yearlong series on planning and living a more sustainable+ambitious year.

In this episode, it’s time for the 12-month review. How did your year go? How did you do with your ambitions and making your life+work more sustainable? Kathy offers prompts and shares her own experiences as she guides us to think about what we’ve learned and what’s next for the new year.

A reminder that these episodes are good ones to do while out on a walk or making...

Today I’m happy to be in conversation with one of my besties, Carol Best! Carol and I have known each other for almost 15 years, and I wanted to have an informative yet fun conversation about how Carol keeps herself engaged in her work, how she’s learned to both step into her ambitions and navigate them across both work and life, and why she prioritizing stepping into being an upbeat, passionate, and optimistic leader.

Carol is a champion of personal purpose and lives it. We hear about that in this episode and how she is someone who...

In this solo episode, host Kathy Oneto asks you to give yourself permission to pause and reflect to honor the past year. Join her for 11 questions to close out the year and welcome 2023.

You may want to listen while out on a walk, pausing to note observations, or sit down with your favorite beverage and a journal at hand. Or, check out the Google document provided to capture your reflections and insights (refer to the Resources in the Show Notes).

Here’s to creating space for whatever is needed in the moment and all the po...

Today I’m joined again by Al Dea, the founder of Betterwork Labs, an organization focused on helping companies create cultures where their people can thrive. Al is an author, speaker, podcast host, and researcher on workplace trends and talent development.

I had Al back for a second episode so we could go deeper and get Al’s perspective on Sustainable Ambition. I love how Sustainable Ambition takes on different meanings for different people, and Al shares that for him it’s about having the autonomy and agency to define how and where one wants to be ambiti...

In this Sustainable Ambition (SA) Quick Tip, host Kathy Oneto talks about finding purpose in your work and in your life where you are, rather than look for it externally outside of yourself. She also offers a more accessible definition of purpose and provides examples that can broaden our view of what it can mean and how we can achieve it. It just might be easier than we think.

Resources Mentioned

Find Your Purpose article: https://bit.ly/sapurpose

E66 - On Smart Strategies to be Fulfilled at Work with Art Markman: https...

Today I’m joined by Tara McMullin, a writer, podcaster, and producer, to discuss her new book, “What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting.” Tara has also studied small business owners for over 13 years. She’s been an inspiration to me, and her wisdom has helped tremendously on my own journey of self-employment, getting me to rethink and figure out what works for me.

Her book is for anyone looking for a new approach to goal-setting, one that you might find better aligned to who you are and more satisfying, while still producin...

Today I’m joined by Jennie Blumenthal, author of the new book, “Corporate Rehab: ditch the hustle culture and thrive again.” After 20 years as an executive in Corporate America, Jennie chose to leave during the pandemic pivot after realizing that she had lost herself and was no longer leading the life she wanted to live.

In this conversation, Jennie shares her career journey and what led her to make her pivot, why it’s easy to fall into hustle culture, how it’s important to step back and re-evaluate and align our values with our work, and how her RE...

Today I’m joined by Todd Cherches, CEO of BigBlueGumball, a NYC-based management consulting firm specializing in leadership development and executive coaching, and author of "VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life."

In this conversation, we talk about Todd’s book, the power of visual thinking, and how visual thinking can be applied through visual images, mental models, metaphors, and stories to be more effective in your thinking, decision-making, and communication. Visual thinking can help us lead more powerfully both at work and in life.

Todd - You’ve packed so man...

Are you a hybrid or remote worker? And, did you know that in today’s remote and hybrid work environments that many of us are feeling disconnected from each other?

- 72% of employees say they aren’t able to socialize enough when they’re remote (Workplace Intelligence)

- 60% of remote workers say WFH (working from home) makes them feel less connected to their colleagues (Pew Research)

That’s a problem. Why? Because having friends, relationships, and a community at work has huge benefits! That means each of us needs to be proactive in making c...

Today I’m joined by Luis Velasquez, an expert in resilience. Luis is an Executive Coach, Stanford University facilitator, and an HBR Ascent contributor. He is also an avid endurance athlete and a brain tumor survivor.

In our conversation, we dig into the definition of and Luis’s equation for resilience, which = Commitment + Persistence x Optimism. We hear core themes of what resilience truly looks like through Luis sharing his own personal experiences from his childhood in Guatemala to surviving a brain tumor to completing endurance events. What comes through is that resilience isn’t a superpower. Sure...

In this episode, I’m happy to be joined by my business school classmate, Mike Trigg. Mike has worked for twenty-five years in Silicon Valley as a founder, executive, and investor in dozens of venture-funded technology start-ups. And now he’s turned his attention to creative pursuits, having just published his first novel, a corporate thriller called “Bit Flip.”

In this fun conversation where Mike and I talk about the book, we discuss what it’s like to have an entrepreneurial career in tech, the role of ambition in Silicon Valley and how it plays a central role in th...

This episode builds on the series that kicked off the year on planning and living a more sustainable+ambitious year. Kathy Oneto, founder of Sustainable Ambition, is back with Part 2 of the Q3 Review to now focus on Q4 planning.

Here she talks about dialing in your ambitions for the end of the year, creating a sustaining plan to avoid the end-of-year crush, and has you focus, despite her own resistance, to looking ahead to 2023 to make initial plans for making it all more sustainable if you expect the fourth quarter to be demanding.

A...

In this episode, Kathy Oneto, founder of Sustainable Ambition, builds on the series that kicked off the year on planning and living a more sustainable+ambitious year. In this episode, we check in on your Q3 progress. Then in Part 2, we’ll look at planning for Q4 to avoid the end-of-year crush and make our end to the year more sustainable.

A reminder that these episodes are good ones to do while out on a walk or making time for quiet reflection. You’ll likely want to pause the episode, think, take notes, and then hit play agai...

Joining me today is Stephanie Movahhed, a leadership coach based in my hometown of San Francisco. In this conversation, Stephanie talks us through her career journey and offers learning and tips from her personal and coaching experiences.

Stephanie has had an interesting career full of pivots that have kept her challenged and growing. Her experiences are a great illustration of staying engaged and in action to help identify one’s next career arc. What comes through is how Stephanie has always been guided by what was important to her and her values, interests, curiosities, and what was ca...