A friend of mine is in a similar situation. When we talk about it I often find myself frustrated because I&#x27;m the complete opposite.<p>I was raised in a kind of hippie-environment where I could do what I wanted as long as I got acceptable grades and didn&#x27;t get into trouble. While perhaps as a result me and my siblings are not the most ambitious of people (at least not conventionally so), I can say that I&#x27;ve had a very happy and even successful life so far. Definitely less stressful than that of many of my friends who were raised to be ambitious (and then weren&#x27;t able to &#x27;satisfy&#x27; this ambition).<p>Could you tell me more about what you did or what happened to you since that &#x27;for a while&#x27; period that you describe? I have no desire to prescribe to my friend what he should do, but I&#x27;m kind of expecting a personal crisis of sorts in the near future as he seems to be able to only barely managing the ambitious environment he&#x27;s in and the anxiety-filled, high-pressure life he&#x27;s led so far. If&#x2F;when he doesn&#x27;t succeed, it might shatter his high expectations. I&#x27;d love to hear how others dealt with similar situations.