How Women Are Redefining Ambition To Build Happier, More Successful Careers: It Isnt ‘worth Sacrificing My Mental Health For

© CNBC Nabila Ismail walks through Mina, Qatar.

Randy Brown didn't realize she was on fire until she nearly killed herself.

One evening, driving home to Washington, D.C., Brown fell asleep at the wheel and drove through six lanes at one of the city's busiest intersections, narrowly missing a pedestrian. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

It was June 2020, the start of the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic: Brown, also a mother of two, was homeschooled and running her own executive training company, leaving her sales job for a while. back. pandemic

“Our mind is very hard to convince to consistently do more, but eventually our body catches up,” says Brown, who declined to reveal his age. “Sometimes we don’t even realize the level of constant fatigue we experience until it becomes a matter of life and death.”

Women's smoking rates remain staggeringly high, with some experts warning that working and surviving conditions during the pandemic have cost women their ambitions.

Even though millions of women have left their jobs or changed careers since the start of the pandemic, and women leaders are leaving companies at the fastest rate in history, many women are still passionate about their careers and striving to succeed.

Overall, nearly half of women (48 percent) describe themselves as "very ambitious" about their careers, and blacks are even more ambitious, according to a Momentive/CNBC poll of more than 5,000 active women. Recently a month

Women do not lose their ambition: they abandon the narrow definition of ambition as the pursuit of money and power and write new things.

Rethinking the "boundaries of typical business work".

Brown's near bankruptcy forced her to rethink her work-life balance, cutting back on the hours she spent growing her business to devote more time to taking care of herself in her routine.

According to Brown, slowing down has helped him dream big and achieve some career goals faster. Earlier this month, she published her first book, Something Important: A New Textbook for Women at Work.

© CNBC Contributed by Randy Brown and her husband Benji during their trip to Sedona, Arizona.

“Women are the most ambitious that have ever existed,” he added. “They are fed up with not being able to fully realize their ambitions within a typical corporate job because they are still limited by the prejudices and barriers that exist in most jobs.”

“I quit my job so I could travel the world for a year”

Nabila Ismail has long dreamed of becoming a pharmacist and improving people's lives with the right medicines.

But after spending the first 10 months of the pandemic working 85-hour weeks at a Los Angeles pharmacy, Ismail realized the career of his dreams was not viable.

“It was brutal, they set me on fire and asked if I wanted to work in healthcare,” says Ismail, now 28.

He left and took another job, this time remotely, as a marketing manager for a telemedicine company, but he didn't like his new role either. “Something was missing,” he recalled.

Then, while cleaning her bedroom, she found an old diary with a clear goal for Nabila's future: "When I'm 28, I'll quit my job and travel for a year."

© CNBC Nabila Ismail on a recent trip to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Ismail couldn't remember when or why he wrote this sentence, but followed his diary's advice: in May 2022, he gave two weeks' notice, moved his belongings to his parents' house , and booked a return ticket. Bali. , a few weeks before her 28th birthday.

She has been traveling ever since, organizing group trips for other women interested in solo travel and blogging about her experiences on her Dose of Travel website. It was in 16 countries or more.

In addition to paying group tours, Ismail funded his travels by working remotely as a marketing strategy consultant and freelance writer for various companies. He also supplements his income with brand partnerships and performances.

Ismaily still considers herself a "very ambitious" person, but has realized that her success does not depend on position or money, but on taking professional risks and focusing on the things that make her happy, like traveling.

“Working on the front lines of the pandemic has taught me how little time is,” he says. “I realized it wasn’t worth sacrificing my mental health for the career markers I worked so hard for.”

"I left C Suite to start my own business and live on a farm"

At the peak of her corporate career, Denise Conroy made multi-million dollar business decisions and flew private jets to executive meetings. In his "past life," as Conroy now calls it, he was a top executive at companies such as Discovery Inc. and Iconic Group.

In March 2020, shortly after the first Covid-19 restrictions were announced, Conroy and her husband Ned moved from Atlanta to a seven-acre farm in Alton, New Hampshire, in search of quieter outdoor space.

During the pandemic, his intentions completely changed. Conroy has always viewed his career as a gradual climb up the corporate ladder to senior management. In 2021, he finally made that dream come true by becoming the interim CEO of a small staff training company.

Conroy, 51, was used to being one of the few women on the board of directors, but when she became CEO she was surprised at how often she was the only woman and the youngest person on many boards. held business meetings. It didn't help that all the meetings took place on Zoom, which added to the sense of isolation.

“That was the last point for me,” he says, “it’s hard to hear your voice in situations like this.”

“When I turned 50, my whole mindset changed. I thought, "I won't suffer anymore, just for the sake of my career."

© CNBC Contributed by Denise Conroy at her farm in Alton, New Hampshire.

In November 2021, Conroy stepped down as CEO to start his own consulting firm, Themy, which he has been quietly building as a part-time job since 2019. to leadership positions is my calling,” he says.

The transition from a steady paying corporate job to running her own business was "absolutely horrendous" for Conroy, who has always been a baker (she and Ned have two dogs).

Conroy took on the costs of growing his business, selling off the remnants of his past senior management, including a Porsche and a "closet full of Christian Louboutin heels" to help cover Ned's bills as well.

Throughout his life, Conroy thought of his ambition as seeking to secure "the best possible situation and as much money as possible" because he "equated money and success with financial security".

“I always wanted to be the most powerful person in the room,” he added.

Now, Conroy's ambition is further fueled by how he maximizes the positive impact he can have in the lives of others and finds hobbies that bring him joy outside of work. She and Ned plan to buy goats and chickens for their farm soon.

Ambition is a common topic in conversations with his friends and the directors he coaches, and while the definition varies depending on who Conroy is talking to, they all had a common revelation: “We have the autonomy to decide what ambition means to us.” . It doesn't depend on anyone else."

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