“I reached some point where I used to gauge my success in accolades and awards. All my peers were doing well with their initiatives while I was stuck, and everything was falling apart. I asked my dad to read a story of one of my fellow peers, and he was like, you are not working hard enough,” says Christine.
“I shed a tear. No one could understand what was going on with me. I envisioned scaling my initiative to greater heights, but I was with nothing to hold here. These two eventualities drove me to the pits of depression,” she adds.
Christine still wanted to chase her dreams and manage her mental health as a young mother. It was a very high mountain to climb.
Fast forward to today; it’s all glam and glory.
“I have learnt to be patient and own my race. Success may mean accolades to others, but success means the support I get from family, being mentally stable, gaining that skill and upscaling my initiatives,” she adds.
Is success good for your mental health? Well, it all depends on how you define it.
From family, career, finances, spiritual and even social matters, every woman desires to achieve success in these spheres of life.
You can easily balance work, life, and your ambition by becoming more mindful and taking a more purposeful approach to life.
There are several ways a woman can overcome a lack of ambition. These include:
- Find a mentor: Finding someone to look up to whose success closely matches what you hope to achieve can help you find the drive to keep chasing your goals.
- Make your goals visible: It is essential to create some form of visual representation of your dreams to see precisely what you are working towards.
- Stay Active: Staying active improves confidence, mental activity, and physical health-all, things that can help you stay sharp as you work toward your goals. Find an activity you love and stick with it.
- Build up support: Try to find friends who are also working toward their goals.
- Practice an “Abundance Mindset”: An abundance mindset believes there is always more to have and always the possibility for improvement.
- Learn yourself: Knowing yourself well can help you kickstart the desire to move forward when you are amid low motivation.
- Cultivate your talents: There will likely be some grain of usefulness or joy in your abilities.
- Leave your comfort zone: Comfort zones might feel safe, but they can stagnate growth. Instead of living in your comfort zone, push yourself to adapt to new challenges and try new things.
- Believe in yourself: Even when things seem difficult, trust the process and believe in yourself.
In this regard, it is essential to keep your ambition in check to avoid any negative feelings.
Some of the ways you can improve your mental health as a woman include:
- Singing: It has been scientifically proven to lower stress, relieves anxiety, and elevate endorphins which make you feel uplifted and happy. Singing helps one relax muscle tension and can help you take your mind off the day’s troubles to boost your mood.
- 2. Connect with nature: Spending time outside in nature is good for the body and the mind. It helps distract us from problems and allows us to feel refreshed.
- 3. Go for a walk: Walking is a form of moving meditation that helps one calm down and offers a state of distraction from day-to-day problems. It also improves mood and the quality of sleep.
- Laughter: What better way to relax than laugh your lungs out. Laughter truly is the best medicine. It helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss. It adds joy and zest to life, eases anxiety and tension, relieves stress, improves mood, and strengthens resilience.
- Meditation: Meditationeases anxiety and mental stress.
- Connecting with friends: True friends are a valuable asset for any woman. They come in handy when one needs a shoulder to lean on. If you are working on a goal, having a friend to report to and keep you accountable can make all the difference in the world.
- Manage your time: Time management is an essential skill for highly ambitious women. Having a timetable can help you perform all the vital tasks at the right time and also have your me-time.
- Take time to rest: As an ambitious woman, it is essential to ensure enough time to rest off your busy schedule. Get enough sleep and have some time to unwind. It will help you remain upbeat for the task ahead.
Conclusion
All said and done, happiness and good mental health are crucial to realizing all your ambitions and achieving sustainable success as a woman.
Sources: mcleanhospital, goodmenproject, forbes, medium