How to reclaim your ambition

Recent news stories have suggested that younger workers are opting out of work ambition. Coverage documents their frustration with a limiting job market, dehumanizing hiring processes, and the expectations set by hustle culture. Those frustrations are real, but the constant negative narrative doesn’t help. What we read can amplify our worries, and media coverage claiming a generation is disengaging from work makes it seem like that’s the expected response. And these stories can make us think we have no agency, which isn’t true. Some in this generation are rejecting the status quo, which isn’t the same as abandoning ambition. Abandon that, and we relinquish our agency to shape the life and work we want. Because what is ambition but having desires and goals that matter enough to us to pursue? By that definition, we are all ambitious. The only question is what kind of life and work we want to build. We all have to operate within the world’s external structures, but there are degrees of freedom within them to act, build options, and move toward a version of success you actually want. Here’s a place to start. KNOW WHAT YOU NEED FROM WORK What we need from work varies by person and chan…