How to have ambition: 3 important lessons we can all use in our careers

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How to have ambition: 3 important lessons we can all use in our careers

By Sarah Ellis

1 year ago

5 min read

How do you find your ambition? And what does it actually mean to be ambitious in 2024’s world of work? In an excerpt from our new book, How To Be Curious, we explore all. 


Sarah Ellis held leadership roles at Barclays and Sainsbury’s before co-founding Amazing If, an award-winning career coaching company. Now, with a top careers podcast and two bestselling books under her belt, she’s a leading expert with a refreshing approach to work and the way it fits into a happy, fulfilled life. Ahead, in an extract from Stylist’s new book, How To Be Curious, Ellis breaks down three essential lessons for harnessing ambition.

Ambition isn’t all about boardrooms and briefcases

For a very long time, probably right up until the pandemic, it felt like everyone had to have the same, shared version of ambition. Ambition equalled seniority, a fancy job title, constantly chasing promotions and working your way up the ranks of an organisation or career path. The message was: if you’re not trying to climb the ladder, what are you doing? You’re clearly not ambitious enough. But there are so many problems with that traditional view of ambition.

Firstly, it implies that we all want to do the same thing in exactly the same way – that we are all the same. A ladder is about following in other people’s footsteps, and its legacy is that we see ambition as this very linear and predictable progression. But this framework for what a ‘successful’ career looks like was created a hundred years ago, as a way to put structures into organisations that were mostly employing middle-class, white men. It was never meant to help us work better, so it’s time to let go of the idea that the only career step worth taking is one that goes up.

One of my most ambitious moves actually involved working less. When I was in a leadership role at Sainsbury’s, I asked if I could go down to four days a week – something that was unheard of at the time unless you had children. But I felt like I needed some space and time to do some more personal development. I was really interested in philosophy and wanted to do some learning around that, and I was in the fortunate position where I could sacrifice 20% of my salary in order to do so. It might not be how we typically think about ambition, but it felt like a really ambitious ask at the time, and it made a really big difference at that point in my career.

If you know your values, ambitions will follow

What I’m seeing more of now is people realising they need to work out what ambition means to them and them alone. Your own definition will be different from your colleague, your friend, your partner, and it takes a bit of soul-searching to find – but when you do, it will change the way you work forever.

Start by noting down what your values are: these are the things that drive you in life, that make you feel happiest and most fulfilled. For example, mine are achievement, ideas, learning and variety – I know when I’m not getting enough of these four things in my life; I can feel stagnant. There have been moments where I’ve over-prioritised work and stopped doing something like playing sport because I’ve been so busy, but then I missed the achievement kick I got from playing netball matches at the weekend and ended up feeling worse in myself and worse at work. It was a bad decision for me, personally and professionally, but it reminded me that my ambition is only healthy when I’m tending to all four of my key values.

Think about what is really important to you, and use that to redraw your ambitions. If autonomy is really important to you, maybe your ambition is to be self-employed one day. If helping others gives you energy, maybe your ambition is to dedicate a day a week to volunteering. If being around your family fills you up, maybe your ambition is to get to a place, financially, where you can spend most of your time with them. These ambitions are all just as valid and just as inspiring as “becoming the CEO” – and if they’re conjured up with your own specific values in mind, working towards them is far more likely to make you happy.

An ambition mentor will keep you on the right path

Building a career community both inside and outside the organisation you work for can be so useful when you’re feeling unmotivated or stuck. Think about people who share a similar ambition to you, or who have realised an ambition of yours and can share their experiences. Those are the people who will reignite the fire in you when you lose sight of what you’re doing it all for. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and prioritise creating connections – it does count as work. When it comes to mentors, people often worry about the give and gain, but humans are generally not so transactional; they want to share their wisdom. Build a network of people whom you admire and share a common ambition with, and you will flourish in their company.

This is an extract from How To Be Curious: Ideas To Make You Think Differently by Meena Alexander, out 15 February 2024.

how to be curious book cover

How To Be Curious

Full of fresh perspectives and intelligent thinking, How To Be Curious encourages you to dig deeper into your work, wellbeing, relationships and inner world. Meena Alexander, an award-winning journalist and features director at Stylist, brings you chapters on everything from battling burnout and biohacking your brain to rethinking the way you rest and learning to thrive alone, packed with insights from industry-leading experts, interactive quizzes and journaling prompts. Consider it a life coach you can carry with you; a place to find the answers to the questions we ask ourselves every day.

Buy now

Main image: Getty

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