In this episode, I’m talking with Ruth Poundwhite, an aligned business coach and mentor who has been claiming and redefining the word ambitious for herself, over the years she’s been running her business, making it work for her in a way that feels good.

She helps fellow humans build businesses that are ambitious and intuitive, and that allows them to honour their whole selves, unapologetically.

She’s author of the book Quietly Ambitious and host of a podcast of the same name.

There’s so much to be talked about around being a person who lives with chronic illness, and also being a person who is ambitious, who has big dreams and desires, and who wants to live an incredible life.  I myself, in the past, have asked whether I had what it took to hold all these things at once, and saw myself looking down the barrel of a life consumed by chronic illness.  I now know and believe that we can use our dreams and ambitions to help us out of the chronic illness struggle, and we can use our chronic illness to guide us in our dreams and ambitions.

We also talked about;

- (Over) identifying with labels and struggles vs. allowing yourself to see them as gifts.

- Not allowing the fear of judgement - around the way you choose to live your life (with chronic illness) - to stop you.

- The visibility and vulnerability that comes with claiming your dreams and ambitions, and supporting yourself to 'go there'.

Episode notes:

2:45 - Ambition and chronic illness - can they work together?  How do the two relate?

5:30 - Labels and how they affect the way we view ambition.  When ambition feels like something that isn’t for you.  Being excluded from being ambitious, having big dreams and wanting to make big things happen.

8:45 - How Ruth started claiming and reshaping ambition into something that worked for her.

13:00 - Does everyone have ambition within them, or is it something only some people have?

16:30 - Ruth’s journey with chronic fatigue and holding her ambition

17:45 - The conversation around being worthy of, or having ‘permission’ to, following your dreams when you live with chronic illness

22:45- Fear of judgement around chronic illness and how you choose to live with your chronic illness.

28:30 - How does ambition feed us?

28:45 - When we over identify with the struggles of our ‘labels’, and when struggles can become gifts.

31:45 - When all your ambition is used up on the ‘goal’ of becoming ‘healed’

34:00 - Being seen, visibility, vulnerability and ambition and allowing yourself to ‘go there’ in a way that feels safe.  The desire for invisibility when you live with chronic illness.

43:00 - How do we expand our identity and self concept when we feel attached to invisibility or labels, or conditioned to feel a certain way about ourselves.

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