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How to Be Awesome at Your Job · 2025-07-14 · 37 min · 6,795 words

1075: The Sustainable Path to Achieving Success and Finding Meaning with Kathy Oneto

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We can challenge some of these norms around, well, how do we define success? How do we define what ambition is? And I think that's where I'm inviting people to really reclaim that and to determine what is work and what is worthy work and what is worthy of your effort. I talk about this idea that there's a U curve of ambition, similar to the U curve of performance, where if your ambition is too low, you can get into this what I call stagnant zone. If your ambition is too high and you're driving hard all the time or you're in this unproductive sense of striving, you can get into the severe zone. And so it really is about, well, how do I dial in my ambition to be kind of the right level so that it is sustainable for myself.

I think why people can often get tripped up with our work life balance and that concept is that they think that, oh, I'm supposed to be in balance all of the time. And yet, again, there's gonna be intense time periods. That's a reality of life and how our life and work work together. And so are you thinking about a broader time horizon, twelve to eighteen months and kind of Ascertaining when am I going to take those down times and when am I going to give myself those breaks so that I can keep myself sustained over time. That's Kathy Onetto. She's a consultant, facilitator, and coach who helps ambitious professionals explore how to live and work differently for more success and satisfaction. She's also a podcaster and author of the book Sustainable Ambition, how to prioritize what matters to thrive in life and work.

So learn one, the major myths surrounding ambition. Two, how to overcome inertia to achieve your goals. And three, how to keep your energy up for the long term. And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways, I recommend you sign up for the free gold nugget email newsletter. Found over at awesomeatyourjob.com. I'm Pete McKitis.

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