Ambition: An Unstoppable Force or Dangerous Power?

Ambition. That driving force that propels us to greatness. In our world today we strive to create more ambition in our lives, but I question whether that is real, genuine ambition or simply a misguided force, that will tear you off your true and best path in life. Ambition is like fire from a dragons mouth; unbelievably powerful but potentially very dangerous. It can be an out-of-control fuel yet if focused can produce unbeatable results. So which is it for you?

The Driving Fuel of Ambition

Ambition, that driving fuel that propels you to supposed greatness. We all aspire to be ambitious and look at others with bucket-loads of the stuff as super-human, almost god-like.

Ambition is having a strong, unrelenting desire to achieve something. In popular culture it is a force that transforms us into chasing goals and hunting down huge achievements.

But ambition can also lead us astray, down misguided dreams and erroneous paths. It can lead us into misery if this force becomes out of control. Or if we compare our ambition to others. Or if we simply become self-imprisoned by our own desires.

Blinded By Ambition

Being ambitious was always a huge part of my identity and overtime I have really changed my view on this powerful ideal. In fact, I think I have come full circle on it.

I was once desperate on becoming 'rich and successful.' On obtaining dizzying amounts of money and vast amounts of social status oriented success. Nothing was going to get in the way of me achieving the dreams I had set out for myself. I was fixated on achieving what I set out to do. This is ambition in its essence. This desire being so strong that I was viewing it as though I had complete control over the end goal. That with certainty I could make it happen.

But I was blinded by my own ambition, and never questioned the direction or path it was taking me down. My ambition was a product of what everyone else wanted for me. Not my own genuine goal. So my ambition got me so far, but it was all wrong.

I got to the metaphorical mountain top. But the view was awful. I had climbed the wrong mountain.

I therefore thought that ambition should be muted, and not chased. That my ambition that is naturally within me should be suppressed and tamed as it produced negative results for me in the past.

The Anti-Climax of Ambition

I felt I was up the wrong mountain top. It was more a mistake than an anti-climax but nonetheless the magnet of ambition pulling you towards your desired destination may be getting you to push harder for nothing. You get it, and what's left. Usually, just emptiness. Lottery winners become excruciatingly upset with dizzying amounts of money. Olympic medalists feel purposeless once they have achieved their childhood dreams of winning gold. Alexander the Great saw the breadth of his domain and he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.

Maybe this force isn't taking you to a better place. Maybe it's just a temporary fleeting idea that is getting in the way.

But if you can start to build the expectation that an outcome won't bring an unlimited amount of exponential joy, you can start to enjoy the process, the climb, the daily challenge for what it is.

Changing My Mind On Ambition

However, my thoughts have been fluctuating around this. Provided the ambition is intrinsic and real, then maybe it should be fostered and encouraged; instead of attempting to eliminate it.

It's funny as I actually consider myself as less ambitious now, compared to before, yet everyone thinks I am more ambitious. My goals and my expectations for the future are just so intrinsic I am actually completely oblivious to my own ambition. It feels such a natural, authentic part of me I can't actually separate it as ambition anymore.

So what I have come to realise is the importance of genuine motivation to pursue the elements of life that really matter for your own internal reasons. Real ambition.

But Can Real Ambition Be Created

Ambition is in itself a desired quality. An ideal to strive for in modern culture. Yet, I question if it is something that you wish to increase, whether that extra ambition is real, natural and genuine.

All that ambition you are desperately trying to find is in reality just fake ambition. And what I have learnt about fake ambition, even though at times it can look so real, is that it will pull you away from your strengths, and intrinsic goals toward the life of other peoples dreams.

Ambition shouldn't be increased or decreased, it just is. It should be carefully focused, directed and controlled in a thought out way. It isn't ambition that needs to be changed, its the orientation of your life. To find something in life that you feel a desperate pull too. Something to chase that you care so much about that you have crazy amounts of ambition to chase. Thats the real and only way to create more genuine ambition in your life.

Therefore it's not that ambition is important or required, or something you should look to increase. Instead spend that effort on finding something so worthwhile to strive for, that you can move mountains for that cause. Something so intrinsically amazing, that ambition isn't something you look to seek anymore. You don’t need more ambition, you need to find a more intrinsically motivated, genuine goal.

Ambition isn't the force for doing the thing.

The force is the reason, the purpose behind doing the thing.