Are You Chasing or Living? Breaking Free from the Ambition Trap with Amina AlTai

What if your ambition is actually working against you? In this episode, host Denise sits down with executive coach and bestselling author Amina AlTai (The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living) to unpack one of the most misunderstood forces driving high achievers — ambition itself. Amina breaks down the difference between painful ambition (driven by unhealed core wounds) and purposeful ambition (rooted in your truth and zone of genius) — and why so many of us are unknowingly stuck in the former. After working herself to the brink of illness, Amina radically rethought her relationship to success, achievement, and what it really means to thrive. In this episode, we cover: The five core wounds (rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, injustice) and the masks we wear to hide them The key traits of painful ambition — self-imposed urgency, scarcity mindset, instrumentalizing yourself, and toxic positivity What high-functioning codependency actually looks like (hint: you might not recognize yourself in the traditional definition) The myth of the passion principle — and why purpose is more stable than passion to build a life on How to take aligned action without micromanaging outcomes or falling into spiritual bypassing Whether you're a high achiever burning out in a corporate system that wasn't built for you, an entrepreneur questioning your path, or someone who has never felt like enough — this conversation will give you a new framework and a new vocabulary for your ambition. You can follow Amina AlTai at aminaaltai.com The Ambition Trap — available wherever books are sold  Instagram: @aminaaltai You can follow this podcast @toomuchwithdlh and Denise @deniselovehewett Amina AITai is an executive coach and leadership trainer, proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate.  A leading coach to notable leaders, executives, and founders—Amina's mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead from it each day. She is the bestselling author of The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living, with Penguin/The Open Field. Amina has partnered with progressive companies such as Google, Meta, Roku, Snap, Outdoor Voices, NYU and HUGE. She's an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence, a Forbes contributor and was named one of Success Magazine’s Women of Influence. Additionally, she's been featured in goop, Well+Good, The New York Times, Yahoo, NBC, Adam Grant’s Next Big Idea Club and more.