360. How to be ambitious (without burning out) ft. Amina AlTai
The Psychology of your 20s
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In your 20s you're told to be as ambitious as you can be, go after your dreams, work hard, be delusional, pursue your passion at any cost. How can we do that without our lives and health crumbling? What is the balance between ambition and appreciation? In today's episode we bring on Amina AlTai, author of The Ambition Trap to talk about:
- Why having more ambition doesn’t always make you more successful
- How a scarcity mindset can ruin your 20s
- How to find your ‘zone of genius’
- When to say ‘no’ to something you really want to do
- How to lean into the slower seasons of life
- The miserable paradox of success
- When do you need to ‘lock in’ & when do you need to have fun?
If you've ever struggled with balancing your big goals with your desire to enjoy life, this episode is for you.
Buy Amina's book HERE
Follow Amina HERE
Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast
For business: psychologyofyour20s@gmail.com
The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:08.6 | Hello everybody. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm Jemma Spike and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk |
| 0:15.4 | through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. |
| 0:28.3 | Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited to |
| 0:34.2 | have you here back for another episode. Being an ambitious person is so obviously |
| 0:40.8 | deeply applauded by our society. We love, we are obsessed with, we want to see success stories |
| 0:47.4 | of people who have started businesses, who are self-made, who are entrepreneurs, authors, leaders, creators, founders, |
| 0:56.7 | especially when they're young. But on the other side of ambition is this very real burnout and |
| 1:05.3 | this very real struggle with how much is enough. How will I know when I'm happy? How can I balance working hard and |
| 1:14.6 | having a life, especially in our 20s when we don't want to miss out on experiences, but we also |
| 1:21.4 | don't want to miss out on our future or the opportunities that are presented to us. |
| 1:26.8 | Today, I invited somebody on the podcast |
| 1:29.0 | who knows more about this balancing act than most people. This conversation, it honestly |
| 1:35.0 | meant a lot to me. It's really a deep depiction of things that I'm currently working through, |
| 1:42.0 | as you will probably hear. I am very excited by this episode. |
| 1:45.7 | We talk about perfectionism, ambition, failure, rejection, joy, and how to go after what you |
| 1:53.5 | want deeply and passionately whilst also still allowing yourself to have a life. |
| 2:00.2 | Without further ado, I want to introduce our lovely, beautiful, wonderful guest to the show. |
| 2:05.6 | Amina, thank you so much for joining us. |
| 2:08.1 | Thank you so much for having me, Gemma. |
... |
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