A few years ago, I was always striving – pushing for more, for bigger, for better. I measured my worth in achievements, in productivity, in how many hours I could sacrifice for the pursuit of success.
Now, I move differently.
My goals are softer. My pace is slower. The things I once obsessed over just don’t hold the same weight anymore.
But does that mean I’ve lost my ambition? Or have I simply redefined it?
When you begin a journey like this, no one warns you that it might shake the very foundation you built your identity on. Especially if that identity has been wrapped up in achievement, performance, and external validation.
For years, I chased milestones. Growth. Recognition. The next big thing.
And the world applauded. I was ‘driven’, ‘dedicated’, ‘resilient’.
But underneath all that drive was something more fragile – a need to prove I was enough. As you can imagine, feelings like that obviously come from a place of not feeling enough. And that’s a pretty hard thing to live with.
And so, finally, something shifted.
I got to a place where the old script, the old way of working just didn’t hold the same appeal anymore. It felt more and more incongruent and uncomfortable. Like clothes that no longer fit.
Suddenly, I couldn’t keep pushing in the same way. I had to pause. I had to ask hard questions – the kind that don’t come with quick answers.
Who am I without the striving? Without the goals? Without the noise?
That pause was terrifying. But it was also liberating.
Because in that space, I started to see my ambition wasn’t gone – it was just evolving.
Healing didn’t make me less ambitious. It made me more intentional.
I stopped chasing growth for growth’s sake. Stopped measuring success only in outcomes and metrics. Stopped needing to ‘win’ at the expense of my own well-being.
Instead, I started asking:
What kind of work actually lights me up?
Who do I want to build with?
How do I want to show up for my team, not just as a leader, but as a human?
It became less about the goals and more about the way I pursued them. A different kind of success
I saw this shift mirrored in a founder I worked closely with. Once caught in rigid patterns and pressure, our work together has changed everything. His internal dialogue has softened. His daily behaviours shifted. He’s stopped getting in his own way. Not because he cares less. But because he finally understands himself more.
This is what healing offers us: A path to a kinder, calmer, truer life. Where you don’t have to prove you’re someone you’re not.
Where you can still be ambitious — but from a place that’s rooted in wholeness, not in lack.
So no, healing doesn’t make you less ambitious. It just frees you to be ambitious in a way that’s actually sustainable.
And meaningful.
And utterly you.