Council Post: Balancing High Ambitions With Consistent Self-Care

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Dr. Dawn Brown is a Child/Adult Psychiatrist and Serial Entrepreneur. She's the CEO/Owner of ADHD Wellness Center & Mental Healthletics™.

It feels great when we have a new accomplishment to add to the resume or unlock that next level in life. Doing so doesn’t just provide bragging material but also helps us feel like we’re on the right path. For many, the mentality is that the more you achieve, the more successful you are. For this reason, the most ambitious among us constantly push to do even more.

You may be one of these ambitious people. But it is just not sustainable in the long term to constantly pursue one arduous goal after another. Those who thrive on the thrill of achieving more know exactly where this leads — a deepening neglect of our own selves.

The desire to achieve more is understandable, but there has to be some balance in life. 

The Desire To Achieve More

A big root cause of the need to see more achievements may come from the hustle culture around us. So many across the internet have long been preaching the hustle culture value of hard work that never stops. Highly ambitious people easily fall into the trap of this “work harder” mentality. There’s so much we want to get done, and it may seem like the only way to get there is by devoting all of our time to those dreams.

If you’re stressing yourself every single day, are you even able to enjoy the goals you reach? The sacrifices made for ambition can cost us our health and mental well-being, often leading to unhappiness in the face of great success. This is why we cannot forget self-care, especially when we dream big.

How To Reach Your Dreams Without Sacrificing Mental Health

More and more, we are realizing that it is unrealistic to give our all to work. We know that by doing so, we can lose friends, family and our own selves in the process.

Ambition can be a really good thing as long as you aren’t having to sacrifice the best things in life. Your dreams are still achievable alongside efforts to put yourself first. It just may take some effort to find that balance, but here’s how you can get started:

1. Use scheduling to effectively manage your time.

Time management is a pretty important skill for those with high ambitions. With so much to do, you don’t have a second to waste. However, as useful as it can be to have a timeline plotting out all your major goals, scheduling can also be used for personal wellness.

With effective daily timetables, you can ensure you have the time for the essentials so you don’t feel so stressed out. Mark out time needed for productive tasks, and then make sure there’s time scheduled for you. Don’t overbook yourself, and block off meal times and rest.

What do you do with the time set aside? Well, that depends on you and what keeps you going. You may enjoy having some “me time,” or you may prefer to recharge by going out and socializing with close friends.

There are several activities that make just about everyone feel better, though. Research has proven the effectiveness of daily exercise, time in nature, meditation and yoga. If you can incorporate just one of these into your schedule, you may find your mood improving before you know it.

As an ambitious person, your struggle likely doesn’t lie in recognizing the importance of these self-care tasks. It may really seem that you don’t have time for it, at least not until after you’ve completed your current goal. But the time often is there. You just have to adjust your mentality to see self-care as uncompromisable.

After all, your health really isn’t something to compromise on. You must shamelessly commit to full nights of sleep, chances to fully unwind and de-stress and daily guilt-free self-care practices. They are not the rewards for a job well-done but constant essentials in life.

The end result of this implementation of self-care should be a lifestyle that’s more manageable and that you feel joy in living. You may find the thrill of ambitions achieved to be greater when you aren’t overworking yourself to get it done.

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