Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work

Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work

| Kathy Oneto, 2025

What’s It All About?

This book woke me up. In a world overloaded with productivity hacks and burnout culture, author Kathy Oneto charts a new course by saying you can stay ambitious — and avoiding burn out in the process.

In Sustainable Ambition: How to Prioritize What Matters to Thrive in Life and Work, Kathy centers her message around three core pillars.

Right Ambition
Right Effort
Right Time

Through these three pillars, she gives readers a practical way to evaluate what matters, when it matters, and how hard to push. Plus, her framework isn’t just theoretical. It’s actionable, too, and includes insights on how to:

Clarify what ambition means for you personally
Pause to check your current energy load and life stage
Ask whether this is the right moment, and if your effort matches your values
Gain the guiding tools you need to stay in tune with both your mission and your own limits

This isn’t a permission slip to go slow. It’s a strategy for being fully engaged — on your terms — without losing yourself.

Favorite Quotes

“Humans are not machines in a factory. We aren’t meant to operate at a consistent, demanding pace all the time. We are meant to operate between two states of using our energy and replenishing it to remain resilient.”

Biggest Takeaway

What really clicked for me was Kathy’s machine analogy. In manufacturing, we’re surrounded by equipment that runs on PM schedules. Like machines, we need preventive maintenance too. The real power came when I combined that realization with the pillar of Right Effort. What if 20% of focus led to 80% of the result?

I saw this in action when a plant manager I worked with stopped attending meetings for a week. He didn’t ask for permission, but simply went ahead and block out the time he needed to focus on coaching and shop-floor conversations.

The result? A turnaround in quality issues. That’s sustainable ambition in action. When there’s no burnout and no pushing past your energy limits, there’s often better results.

Bonus Information

After reading Sustainable Ambition, I’m currently applying one of Kathy’s great exercises. It’s helping me identify short, mid, and long-term goals, with a focus on asking myself “is this the right effort, right now?”

Kathy was also a recent guest on the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, where we dig deeper into the lessons behind Sustainable Ambition and how her insights aligns with themes of showing up, accountability, and shifting from control to curiosity. To hear Kathy Oneto on Mindfulness Manufacturing, click here.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When your workplace includes baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z employees, it can seem impossible to keep everyone happy and fulfilled. In a multigenerational workplace, can you really create an environment where everyone feels supported, valued, and motivated?

It is possible—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Michelle McCullough provides the insights and tools you need to drive engagement, trust, and emotional well-being across all generations. Michelle is a nationally recognized speaker, leadership expert, and workplace culture expert and has spent years researching how leaders can build more resilient, connected, and productive teams.

In this episode, Michelle shares key insights from her latest research, including how trust, support, and human connection can radically transform retention and performance on the shop floor. This episode will challenge you to think differently about what your team really needs.

2:50 – Emotional intelligence is especially important in a high-pressure industry like manufacturing 4:10 – Gen Z crave connection, purpose, and mental well-being in the workplace 6:30 – Older generations tend to prioritize stability, while younger generations want social connection 8:00 – When employees understand the impact of their work, they feel more connected and motivated 9:50 – Show an interest in your team member’s lives outside of work 11:00 – Understand that different generations have different motivations 21:00 – Team building exercises can improve cohesion and morale 23:10 – Happiness and resilience training can improve mental health and team connection 24:15 – You should also understanding gender gaps in the workplace 27:50 – When trust is broken, it can be rebuilt through intentional actions like growth, vulnerability, and transparent communication. 29:00 – Employees are more likely to stay and be engaged when they feel supported and understood by their leaders.

Connect with Michelle McCullough Visit her website Follow @SpeakMichelle on social media