I have had numerous conversations with eldest about this as he is generally very ambitious and wants to be "successful" (he has a definition for that to aim for) and wary of getting too comfortable and becoming lazy and complacent. And being 18 he is very extreme in his desires and wants to go all out into discomfort and push himself past his limits, which while I don't see as a bad thing I have made many suggestions to avoid burnout and letting him know that it is perfectly okay to accept and celebrate smaller milestones as he will just be miserable his entire life if he doesn't as success/perfection/improvement is a moving goalpost that if he's anything like me, he will never reach.
I have known people previously who have left relationships because their ex partners were "too ambitious" and so hyperfocused on achieving whatever it was they wanted to achieve that they neglected the relationship. And in one case the person in question wanted to be the absolute most important thing in their partner's lives bar nothing and refused to "compete" with a dream.
I don't remember if the person in question meanwhile found it perfectly acceptable for them to have dreams and expected their partner to be fully supportive of this but it wouldn't have surprised me at the time
So guess it's a case of enough but not too much? XD
"Success" might not be the goal here perhaps, because there might never be a good enough point ,it just keeps going. But I do think that having something to work toward, a purpose of some kind brings life value beyond the result.
This is addiction, isn't it? It is a bit different than what I mean by ambition, because I don't see single-mindedness as an attractive trait. But, there is something about a person that goes a little extra, finds a few minutes more to work toward something they are after that is attractive.
Some call it love - I might call it a toxic relationship! :D
I didn’t have a word for it at the time but now that you mention it… 😱🤣
:)