Reassigning Ambition
More than ever, driven women are seeking balance over a higher pay band. Has the aftermath of 2020 rewired how we see our careers?
ADDRESSING OUR VALUES
It’s safe to say the pandemic is something we’re glad we now refer to, for the most part, in the past tense.
A bizarre time of separation, loss and adaptability quickly became the normal parameters of our life, and there was little we could do to control that which we’d been used to controlling.
Though most of us are now capturing every opportunity to eat dinner with friends, travel and value time with our loved ones, it would seem it’s only now that we are seeing some of the longer-lasting impacts of a world turned upside down.
2020 afforded us a gift as well as lots of broken things. A gift that, if left to our own devices, we would have always viewed as a curse.
The forced message to stay at home and keep a distance undoubtedly had negative effects on our mental wellbeing. That being said, its bonus came in the form of generous time to reflect and assess our most vital priorities with minimal distractions.
Two years on, the land lies differently. Many businesses offer hybrid working. People are changing their careers from the highest salary to the highest satisfaction. Relationships have started and ended, all with the motivation of knowing one's self-worth.
Our depiction of what matters most was challenged, and we are now taking steps to really own our values.
This doesn’t seem to be happening in ones and twos, but en masse.
SLAY ALL DAY
The first installment of Beyoncé’s long-awaited album Renaissance will drop at the end of this week. Her first single release from the record is ‘Break my Soul’, a vibrant ode to the intensity of losing desires and energy to our work.
Now, I just fell in love
And I just quit my job
I'm gonna find new drive
Damn, they work me so damn hard
Work by nine, then off past five
And they work my nerves
That's why I cannot sleep at night
In great contrast to the caricature painted of her, the multi-Grammy-winning star appears to be shedding the image of someone on their eternal grind, to one who is taking back things that have been lost from her intense work schedule.
Having as many hours in the day as Beyoncé reached proverbial status a few years back, but it would seem her new echo reverberates beyond the celebrity world.
Dubbed the age of anti-ambition, recent times have found many taking a step back to evaluate and see whether the sacrifice made at work is really worth it.
Time away from the people we love, our passions, and the toll that long and stressful hours can take on our mind and body have been deemed untenable for some.
REDEFINING SUCCESS
Perhaps anti-ambition is a strong way to describe the shift happening, when rather this is a change in ambition. It is less that ambition has dwindled, and more that it has been reassigned.
Does this mean we’ve given up on our dreams? Certainly not. For many of us, hard work is an instilled virtue that we will take throughout our lives, but not at the cost of losing our essence.
The aftermath of the pandemic seems to be less about abandoning success, and more about broadening our view of it. Success in nurturing our relationships, prioritising health and making a courageous pivot is still worthy.
In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus spoke about the dangers of gaining everything but losing what’s important, ‘And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?’ (Matthew 16:26 NLT).
He was speaking about finding our true purpose in God through faith over selling ourselves short on things that promise the earth but don’t deliver. It’s not that a journey of faith is ever perfect, more that it pursues something that outlasts the temporary things.
LOOKING AHEAD
It is not the time to vilify ambition, but the time to assess its trajectory. Will attaining our goals truly satisfy our longings?
Whether you’re slaying with a side hustle intact or stepping back to make some changes, perhaps progression to us all in this cultural moment is being willing to ask ourselves the important questions. Is what I’m giving my time to worth the cost? Is the pace I’m living at sustainable for the long haul?
When we take the courage to challenge the way things have always been, we not only show ourselves the power of choice, but show others it’s possible to take control of our present and future.
WORDS BY
Rachel Calland
