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Hi there, Maureen Chiana here, founder of the Mindsites Academy, neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and other people's emotions, change behaviors, flourish and exceed expectations. I am so pleased to be back here with another episode of Lead to Excel Podcast. If you haven't already subscribed to this podcast, do remember to subscribe wherever you listen to it. Without wasting any more time, grab your drink, whatever that might be, put your feet up and listen in. So the big question is, are you a prisoner of your own ambition? And why is success measured by how busy you are or how much money you make? But the true question then is what is ambition? Ambition is a strong desire to do or achieve something. But it's also worth remembering that success is not extrinsic. Success can only truly occur internally because it's based on emotion. Many ambitious people are working really hard without becoming as successful as they could be, and they're sacrificing much more of their fulfillment in life than they actually need to. And the question is, is this you? Pursuing prestige and success for the wrong reasons can be called misplaced ambition and an obsession with money. These are traps many people fall into and it has ruined people's personal and professional lives. I find that people blame their dissatisfaction at work on their company or the manager, and this can be true, but in a lot of cases, there's actually more to it. And you know where you find yourself, or you've probably heard someone saying, I'm working harder than I ever have, and I don't feel valued at work, and I'm not sure if it's even worth it anymore. These thoughts have probably crossed your own mind recently. Or, like I said, maybe someone you know. Many people are feeling fed up, burnt out, and unhappy at work due to the unrelenting pressure and stress, the constant changes, the inequity that you experience at work, and people feel as though they can't give much more, which you find makes performance suffer a great deal. Many are worried how the new hybrid model of working will affect them as employees, while leaders and executives are worried about how it will impact engagement and performance. The key is to take control of your life because your success is determined by how happy you are and not how smart you are. According to Annie Mickey, author of How to Be Happy at Work, the real reason we feel trapped is dependent on how we view our work, our understanding of work, our choices, and what drives our actions and what we do and what we don't do. She says that as long as we are running away from something outside ourselves, we will not find happiness. This was music to my ears because it's exactly what I teach people in my emotional and intelligence for leadership training program. The truth is that many organizations are not set up to provide meaning, fulfillment, and psychological safety for employees, and this is why developing high emotional intelligence as a leader and manager and executive is extremely important. Happiness is a choice. And we'll start on that basis as we go through this podcast. Happiness is a choice. Don't get trapped into a destructive and limiting thought pattern that will keep you unfulfilled in your job or business. You have much more control of your work than you credit yourself with. Should we even expect to be fulfilled and happy at work is a question I hear many people ask. The answer is yes, definitely. You deserve to be happy and fulfilled at work. Happiness and fulfillment are more important than ever in today's workplace, and it actually increases work effectiveness massively. Why are you doing what you do? Is it because you believe it's expected of you by society, by parents? Many measure their success by how much they have. This leads to many people becoming addicted and obsessed with making money, resulting in having to stay in a job to make more money but are extremely miserable. You know, that new promotion, that new contract. But I come back to that question. How do you measure success? This thought pattern comes from a place of low self-esteem and insecurity. If you don't see the worth in yourself, then money, how people perceive you, how people like you become your measure of success. Ambition is great until it becomes an obsession to succeed at any cost. Are you the person that, even on achieving a goal, won't celebrate and you don't even stop to appreciate those that helped you along the way? Instead, you have your eyes immediately on the next goal. It's also worth looking at your ambitions from an objective standpoint. Are they really your own? I would love to know what you think about ambition. So if you put comments at the bottom, that would be awesome. Do you think you have to sacrifice a lot in life in order to fulfill your ambitions? Or should you have a balance between your ambitions and doing what lights you up? And back to the question, is that really even possible? So I would love to hear from you. And in conclusion, I would say that your life is a reflection of you. If you want to change your life, you have to change yourself. Have you ever worked with someone whose ambition was focused solely on their own goals? You notice that everything for them is a win-lose competition. To break free of these traps, you first have to accept that you deserve happiness at work. Then you can use your emotional intelligence, particularly emotional self-awareness, self-control, and organizational awareness to enable you to understand which trap has ensnared you. Then actively seek meaning and purpose in your daily activities. Foster hope in yourself and others and build relationships that last, that will be sustained. Because as a leader, if your focus is solely on you achieving your goals, you will lose the trust of the people that you manage and you also lose their goodwill as well. So take ownership and don't allow yourself to become trapped by your desire to succeed, the desire for money, the desire for status, misplaced ambition, or what you think you should do. Learn how to examine your needs and desires, your motivation, your hopes, and your dreams, then compare what you really want with what you've been told you should do. When you look from the inside out, when you truly come to a place of self-discovery, understanding yourself, understanding your purpose, understanding your passion, when you really understand what you want to get out of life, when you want to get out of your career, what you truly want to achieve, then you're more likely to be on a path of fulfillment, happiness, and true success. One thing I always encourage you, I went into a great detail about this in the Saw Higher training. Take time to celebrate your wins. Take time to celebrate achievements, appreciate the people who've helped you achieve those goals as well. And finally, don't allow your ambition to turn into a trap rather than an asset, which it should be. I hope this will really help you reflect on yourself, reflect on your ambition, and make sure that your ambition is for the right reason, that what you are pursuing is truly what you want to pursue, that what you're doing is truly what you want to be doing, and not what you perceive you should be doing, or not what people have told you that you should be doing. Let it be what you want. So take time and reflect deeply on yourself. And if you want more help on this, I really recommend a saw higher program. It's an e toolkit that will really help you understand yourself, understand your wants, understand the things that you don't want, and enable you to create a plan to keep you focused to get to where you really want to get to, to achieve those dreams, those goals, and enable your true ambition to be fulfilled. Thank you once again for tuning in. And remember that if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, click on the button wherever you listen to it so that you don't miss an episode. I've got some exciting episodes coming up with some interesting guests that you really wouldn't want to miss. So, in this climate, wherever you are, do remember to keep safe, look after yourself, and I truly wish you perfect health. Stay limitless, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye for now.