EP 37 – Is loving your work the same as losing yourself?

Host: Hazel Ann | Clearly Becoming · Solo Episode

You've been told Gen Z is lazy. Quiet quitting. Bare minimum Mondays. Disengaged.

But what if I told you that Gen Z cares so much, so deeply, about the right work, that they have actually started to lose track of where the work ends and you begin?

This episode is about that line. The one between loving what you do and being consumed by it. Between choosing your life and drifting into it while being very, very good at it.

We're going there via The Devil Wears Prada (that’s right, Miranda, Andy, Emily) and the neuroscience and psychology that explains why even purpose-driven ambition can become a trap. Especially in your twenties, when the developmental task is to keep exploring who you are — not lock it down.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:

The real difference between Miranda Priestly and Emily — and why it's not about work ethic
Why purpose-driven workaholism is harder to spot (it feels righteous)
The dopamine loop behind "one more email", and why Miranda isn't disciplined, she's wired in
What identity foreclosure is, and why your 20s are the highest-risk window for it
The hedonic treadmill: why the reward always moves, and what that means for how you're measuring success

How to tell the difference between harmonious passion and obsessive passion, from the inside

Three questions to ask yourself this week: not to work less, but to work with more awareness

💬 QUOTE OF THE EPISODE – "Working hard is not the same as losing yourself. But in your twenties, you have to be awake enough to know the difference."

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Nigel's quote + the question this episode is really asking

01:30 — Miranda, Andy, Emily: three archetypes, one question — which one are you?

03:00 — Gen Z data: 89% purpose-driven, 44% have quit for lack of meaning, 41% tie identity to work

04:30 — The risk isn't working hard. The risk is mistaking intensity for meaning.

05:00 — The dopamine loop: why stimulating work activates the same pathways as compulsive behaviour

06:30 — Identity foreclosure: what Erikson says about committing too early to one identity

08:00 — The hedonic treadmill: each win raises the baseline. You don't arrive.

09:00 — Harmonious vs obsessive passion — and how Miranda crossed from one to the other

10:00 — The Gen Z version of the trap: when your side hustle is your passion, boundaries feel like betrayal

10:30 — Three tests: can you set it down? Who are you without it? Did you choose this?

13:30 — The clarity round + what Hazel Ann is letting go of

14:30 — Clearly becoming… the narrator of my own life

RESOURCES

RELEVANT EPISODES

This is your reminder that you can be ambitious and confused. DM Hazel Ann on Instagram your ONE non-negotiable habit and the WORD that describes who you are clearly becoming.

CONNECT WITH HAZEL ANN

Instagram: @clearlybecoming
TikTok: @clearlybecoming_
YouTube: youtube.com/@clearlybecoming