Drive can be a double-edged sword. It’s the thing that gets us out of bed when the alarm hits too early. It’s what pushes us toward our goals, even when no one’s watching. But sometimes, it’s also the same thing that runs us straight into burnout.
In our latest episode of If You Have Feelings, we sit down with nurse-turned-entrepreneur Emily Cheng, who knows a thing or two about ambition, burnout, and rebuilding from the ground up. Emily’s story isn’t about hustling harder. Because ew, we will never promote that.
It’s about learning how to channel drive so it fuels your whole self instead of draining it dry.
Before We Dive In
Before listening to our conversation with Emily, start with I’m Feeling: Driven. This minisode is a short, no-fluff breakdown of what drive actually is, why we crave it, and how it can both help and hurt us.
In this episode, we explore:
- How drive can be a form of self-protection (and why that’s not always bad).
- The emotional difference between motivation and pressure.
- What your body might be trying to tell you when your drive turns into burnout.
🎧 Listen to the minisode on →
Then come back to hear how Emily Cheng turned her own relentless drive into something that fuels her whole self. Yes that means your mind, body, AND heart.
Redefining What “Driven” Looks Like
For Emily, “feeling driven” once meant saying yes to everything… more hours, more responsibilities, more pressure. After years in healthcare, watching people neglect their health until it was too late, she channeled that energy into movement and purpose. But like so many of us, she realized her passion for doing everything came at the cost of herself.
“I knew I didn’t want to be a martyr anymore,” she says. “I was tired of doing all the things, even if I wanted to.”
It’s a hard truth: being driven can sometimes be the most socially acceptable trauma response. We label it “ambition” or “hustle,” when sometimes it’s literally survival.
From Overdrive to Intention
Emily’s healing started with movement. Reconnecting to her body through hiking, backpacking, and eventually, mountaineering. She learned that emotions live in the body, and moving helps release them.
“Emotion is energy in motion,” she says. “You can’t think your way out of feeling stuck. You have to move it out of your body.”
The shift from overachieving to intentionally fueling transformed how she worked, trained, and lived. Instead of pushing herself to exhaustion, she learned to honor her cycles: periods of rest, reflection, and recalibration.
“Balance isn’t real,” she adds. “You just have shifting priorities depending on your season of life.”
Reclaiming Drive Without Burning Out
Maybe “feeling driven” doesn’t mean constant motion. Maybe it’s learning when to pause, when to say no, and when to start again.
Emily learned to see saying no not as a failure, but as self-respect. She learned to rebuild confidence not through accolades, but through follow-through. Like training for her first triathlon after burnout, not to prove something, but to trust herself again.
“The triathlon wasn’t about performance,” she says. “It was about keeping a promise to myself.”
Fueling Your Whole Self
Being driven doesn’t have to mean being depleted.
True drive comes from alignment when what you want to achieve matches how you want to live. That means:
- Checking in with your body before checking another item off your to-do list.
- Saying no without guilt.
- Resting without earning it first.
- Moving because it feels good, not because you’re trying to “fix” yourself.
Feeling driven isn’t about going harder. It’s about going deeper.
About Emily Cheng
Emily Cheng, RN, BSN (she/her) is a curious human that lives in awe & wonder. By formal education, she is an ICU nurse, travel nursed for 5 years, and is an entrepreneur who co-founded MedVenture, a mobile app empowering traveling healthcare professionals through community, tools, and resources. Through many life experiences, she's discovered and is currently exploring the magic of movement and the outdoors and how it honors and fuels her mental, physical, and spiritual health.
Follow @everevolvingem on Instagram.
