Ambition gets lighter when it stops trying to prove something to people who never cared.

A surprising amount of drive is addressed to an audience that is not watching: somebody who doubted you once, a group who have long since moved on, a person who does not think about you at all now. Effort aimed at them is heavy, because the proof never lands and the case never closes. Taking those people out of the plan does not reduce the ambition, it removes the weight.

Ask who you are actually trying to convince. If the honest answer is somebody who has not thought about you in years, let them go from the project.