Early in your career, you volunteered for difficult projects, stayed late, and took pride in delivering results. It worked. You rose through the ranks, built a reputation for solving problems, and became a leader. That was before. Now, the ambition that once energized you leaves you exhausted. And the standards you’ve set feel like a treadmill you can’t get off.
It’s a common pattern among high-performing professionals, according to Mary Anderson, clinical psychologist and author of “The Happy High Achiever”. In her practice, she sees this over and over again: ambitious, successful people at the peak of their career who have already ticked all the boxes and yet still feel empty.
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“They are not enjoying their own excellence,” she says. “Instead, they are overwhelmed, exhausted and have high cortisol levels.”
For many, this is when the crisis arises, notes Amy Wrzesniewski, an organizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“If your success has always depended on enormous effort and energy, and suddenly you can’t sustain that anymore, it’s scary,” she says. “But instead of blaming yourself for what used to work, direct that energy toward understanding why things have changed.”
Start by asking yourself these five questions
- Is this an engine or fuel problem?
The drop in your ambition has a cause, and it helps to think of it in two ways: your engine is wearing out or your fuel has changed.
An engine problem means the “machine” (i.e. your body) has aged. You still enjoy your work, but recovery takes longer and your energy isn’t the same.
“When you were younger, you could function on little sleep and eat anything quickly,” says Anderson. “At the beginning of your career, you can push yourself to the limit, but that takes its toll later.”
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A fuel problem is different. The engine parts are fine, but what powers it has changed. You can no longer generate the enthusiasm that once came naturally.
“The fuel no longer has the same spark,” says Wrzesniewski. You start to realize, “I actually don’t feel the same way about this anymore.”
Diagnosis matters because the solutions are different.
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- Am I looking for the next achievement or doing work that makes sense to me?
Wrzesniewski’s research identifies three ways of looking at work. Some see it as a job, basically a financial exchange. Others see it as a career, focused on advancement and promotions. And there are those who see work as a vocation: something intrinsically meaningful and rewarding.
She notes that people who see work as a job or career report lower satisfaction than those who see it as a calling. And, if you were driven by achievements and constant advancement, this orientation loses strength when you reach a plateau or run out of new steps to climb. The focus changes: “How do I feel about this work? Is it meaningful?” says Wrzesniewski.
Those who see work as a vocation are less vulnerable to these feelings.
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“The point was always to enjoy this work”, he explains. “Either it’s fun or challenging, or it contributes to something you care about. That bond sustains people better.”
You don’t need to abandon ambition. But you may need to redirect it to the work itself, not the next promotion.
- What standards am I living by?
At some point, you may have outsourced your definition of success, says Anderson. Your industry standards have become yours. Your company’s metrics have become your parameters. You are living up to expectations you absorbed years ago and never questioned: “If you tie your internal worth to external validation, you will live with chronic anxiety.”
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One source of this anxiety: You often internalize unrealistic expectations from demanding clients and bosses and hold yourself to a higher standard than is actually required.
“They expect excellence from you, and that’s real pressure,” says Anderson. “But don’t confuse excellence with perfection.”
Sure, your achievements matter, she says, “but you’re not your bank account. You’re not your awards.”
Its value should not rise and fall according to quarterly results. “At some point, you have to define success on your own terms,” he says.
- When do I have the most energy at work — and what would it take to structure my role around that?
Regardless of whether it’s an engine problem or a fuel problem, you need to identify what deserves your energy. Maybe it’s when you guide a younger colleague through a difficult problem. Maybe it’s the strategic thinking, not the execution. Or contact with customers, not internal politics.
Researchers call this work reconfiguration — reshaping your work to make it more engaging, emphasizing the parts that make sense to you.
“Sit down and think about what makes up your work, what you tolerate, and where there is leeway to approach tasks that nourish you,” says Wrzesniewski.
At this point, you may have more autonomy than you think. Wrzesniewski suggests finding ways to delegate what drains you and dedicate more to what energizes you.
“There is often a natural shift at this stage of your career towards mentoring, advisory roles or projects where your impact is on developing others rather than just delivering results,” she says.
Anderson defines this as energy management.
“If you want to continue performing at a high level, you need to protect your energy,” he says. “Be strategic about where you use it, focusing on what matters.”
- If I only kept what energizes me, would there be enough to keep me going?
In some cases, the answer comes quickly.
“You may already know, on some level and clearly, that it’s time to leave your job,” says Wrzesniewski.
In others, the answer is less radical: more rest, clearer limits, or work adjustments may be enough. But if what energizes you is just a small part of your day and everything else drains you, that’s not sustainable. This is when you need to start exploring what comes next.
Change doesn’t have to mean abandoning your specialty. Consulting, serving on boards, and teaching allow you to stay involved while doing different work, notes Wrzesniewski.
“There’s a reason there’s so much interest in changing careers,” she says.
This transition may be the first time in your career that you ask yourself what you want instead of what you think you should want, Anderson says.
“You built your reputation by meeting high expectations,” he says. “But now it’s up to you to decide what excellence looks like for yourself.”
c.2026 Harvard Business Review. Distributed by New York Times Licensing
