What happens when achieving a long-held career goal doesn’t bring fulfilment?

Words: Katie Scott

ILLUSTRATIONS: TODD ROBINSON

When London-born Jasmine Richards applied to university, included in her choices was Oxford, specifically because it was where her favourite author, Philip Pullman, had studied. There was never any question in her mind that she would write. She’d started as a young child, composing stories for her family, and then worked towards this ambition relentlessly. ‘When I finally achieved this, and my book was acquired by HarperCollins [Publishers] in the US, it was an incredible feeling,’ she says. ‘I felt like my hard work had paid off and the dream had manifested.’

So much of life is given over to working towards ambitions. They’re written down in the backs of notebooks at the turn of the year or shared with friends in moments of unguarded excitement. They can be monumental ambitions for things that will change life forever or micro-alterations that might make only a slight difference to daily routine. Indeed, the culture of aspiration is so strong that it’s almost become a societal expectation that everyone is working towards something.

Early prompts

For many, the pressure to set ambitions starts at a young age. Common questions to children, for example, centre around what they’d like to be when they grow up. Think of the pictures they draw of themselves as firefighters, doctors, ballet dancers, veterinarians, footballers, singers, astronauts… without any real idea of what the roles involve on any level – academically, physically, emotionally – or how they’re going to get there. As the years go by, subject choices might begin to reflect these early-stated aspirations or, as is often the case, preferences might change. Either way, for many, options and exam decisions often reflect currently held ambitions, be they to get the right grades to join an engineering firm and design green technology, secure a place at a sports college and pursue an Olympic dream or study English at university and become a bestselling author. Within this structure, it’s easy to see how you can come to define yourself by your ambitions. More than that, however, it explains why others might also come to see you in this light and judge you on how far you get in achieving these goals.