Good Work : Reclaiming Your Inner Ambition

what if rejecting performative busy work is one of the most ambitious things a human can do?

I’ve had to mourn the loss of parts of myself that once served me, while also reconnecting with other parts of myself that I had suppressed.

The culture decrees that you should do what you are good at rather than what you most like to do; that what you produce rather than what you get out of what you produce is what counts; that your ability, reflected in achievements, is what matters. Given cultural expectations, it is all too easy to equate personal and professional worth.

Angie and I joked that in just a few months, we had already spent more time together than career-focused couples do in a whole year. This felt important: she took quality time seriously and was willing to sacrifice things like money in return for connection, adventure, and love.

“why not consider the savings a gift from your former self?” Hmm. That was interesting. I could be grateful to “achiever Paul” for making this money and giving me the chance to reinvent myself.

But when you stop doing it, good work seduces you back. It is something you must do. Once you discover your good work, take it seriously and protect it, as it can be one of the most powerful ways to show up in the world, contribute, and feel useful.

I was leaving behind my home and my identity as an achiever, a safe refuge which had gotten me to this point but was no longer serving me.

I was starting to see that my real journey had never been about escaping work; instead, it was about searching for a deeper kind of work that I could commit to.

This is why when people ask me, “How can I do what you’re doing?” I can’t tell them what they want to hear. They want easy answers, a shortcut to a future state of success. But the path that will lead us to the life we want is uniquely our own, inevitably filled with the exact challenges we’d rather avoid.