No laughing matter: The motivational complexity of pursuing an aspirational self in non-standard work

Through an inductive study based on in-depth interviews with 50 female comedians, we develop a process model of how people pursue ambitious career goals in non-standard work. We adopt an identity lens to understanding ambition as pursuing an aspirational self, i.e., a possible self that the person sees as both highly desirable and highly improbable. We find that aspirational selves create a state of motivational ambivalence, in which people are caught between two conflicting motivations: to achieve their aspirational self and to protect themselves from likely failure. These conflicting motivations drive people to vacillate between promotion-focused enactment (enacting an aspirational self as a primary career, with significant resources and risks— “going all in”) and prevention-focused enactment (enacting an aspirational self through daydreaming or as a hobby, with limited resources and risks— “dipping one's toes”). Over time, these enactment experiences recalibrate individuals' assumptions surrounding what is desirable and possible, ultimately refining their understanding about what career success means and shifting the balance either in favor of promotion (in which case individuals commit to achieving their aspirational selves) or in favor of prevention (in which case individuals become demotivated and postpone or forego this pursuit). This model expands our understanding of possible selves, illuminates the complexity of the link between identity and motivation, provides novel insights into identity enactment, and offers several theoretical contributions to research on non-standard careers.