Dr Turner insists that ambition and contentment aren’t really opposites. “You can be deeply content and still wildly ambitious,” she explains. “It’s a problem when we tie our self-worth to achievements. We don’t allow ourselves to feel ‘enough’ until we’ve arrived somewhere else.”

Dr SaraLou Wylie, a women’s life coach and GP, agrees. She works with successful, driven women who – on the outside – look like they’ve got it all figured out. “They’ve hit the career milestones, secured the promotions, climbed the ladder. But time and again, I see that despite these achievements, something still feels missing. That’s where I believe we need to radically rethink what we mean by ‘ambition’,” she says. Because when ambition is fuelled by anxiety, self-doubt or comparison, or when it comes from a place of ‘I should’ rather than ‘I want to’, it can turn into a stick we beat ourselves with rather than a carrot that pulls us forward with joy and purpose.

However, this attitude appears to be changing for the better. As Dr Turner points out, for Gen Z and younger millennials, ambition doesn’t always look like climbing the corporate ladder; it looks like freedom, flexibility and values-led living. “They’re not rejecting ambition; they’re rejecting burnout. Older generations were taught to sacrifice themselves for success. This generation is asking, What if success includes my wellbeing? That’s not laziness. That’s wisdom. We’re seeing a powerful shift: ambition is becoming less about status and more about sustainability. I think they’re onto something. When your goals align with your values and when your work supports your life instead of consuming it, you actually achieve more with less force and more flow.”

Can you ever be ambitious and content at the same time? How to strive for more while also being happy with ‘enough’