How to deal with ambition.
Is it right or wrong?
You need ambition to achieve success. At least, that’s an important credo in the world of work, sports and business. Is this assumption actually correct? Isn’t ambition a trap in which many get stuck with unpleasant consequences? In this article, I want to shine my light on the dark sides of ambition.
Ambition, the meaning
Everyone knows what ambition is, but for the sake of clarity, let me give you a few meanings:
- Striving for fame
- Honor-seeking
- Desire to acquire something
- Striving for a particular goal
- Personal success
- Striving to make a career
- Desire to achieve something
Actually, you can reduce all these meanings to the following two:
♦ The drive to become something, such as:
a role, the greatest, a function, the best, a position
♦ The urge to have something, such as:
a title, possession, money, fame, status, power
So from the situation of the present moment, we want to move toward a future situation that is bigger, higher, better or more than the present one. Apparently, what is there now is not enough. You must have the desire for “more. I use the word “must” here because this desire is seen as something important by our environment. We grow up with it in our Western world. We are encouraged from an early age to be ambitious. Why really?
The ego rears its head
To find the answer to this question, we must first see what is behind the urge for more, behind the craving. We live through sense perception. We experience all kinds of things by seeing, feeling, tasting and hearing. Suppose you see a house and you like it very much. Your mind then forms a certain image and thinks “I want a house like that too.” Thus desire arises. You start making plans to make that desire concrete.
Our thinking constantly makes comparisons in this way. It compares an observation with the present situation and notices a difference. And when this thinking has the belief that what is perceived as a lack is within his/her reach it comes into action. With this thinking comes the ego. The ego expresses itself in various ways. Let me mention two here that are especially applicable to this situation:
- Insatiable
‘The lake is never full’ is the theme here. There is a constant craving for more. More money, more fame, more success, etc..
- Leading the way
Here the urge is present to be the biggest, the first, the best or the fastest. Constantly wanting to outdo others leads to competition and rivalry.
There is always a superlative present. By comparing, you always discover a lack or deficiency. The aforementioned qualities of the ego now rear their heads. Do you have a particular position? There is always a higher, better paid or a position with more status to be found. Are you wealthy? More money, a bigger house, a more luxurious car and more possessions are always available. And the easier it is for people to attract more and better, the greedier they become.
Caught up in the ‘ambition’ process
Before you know it, you are living entirely according to the ego’s drives. People who discover that manifesting their ego needs is getting easier and easier for them quickly become trapped in this ‘ambition’ process. More and more they become attached to achieving new results. They quickly become accustomed to the results themselves. That new car is traded in for a bigger one faster and faster. Your company’s turnover must continue to show a constant upward trend. If you are Swedish champion, then you want to be world champion.
The danger is that you get more and more entangled in your own woven sticky web of desire. Your web gets bigger and bigger and you get entangled in it deeper and deeper until you cannot get free of it. Look around you. Entire tribes are preoccupied with their -larger or smaller- web. The whole economy revolves around this. Buy this, do that, get better, make a career or get a “higher” education.
The consequences of the web of desire
One of the unpleasant consequences of being trapped in this process is that you are only attached to the outcome. You can no longer enjoy the journey toward it. Purely on willpower you take those steps that will get you to your goal as quickly as possible. And once you have reached your goal, you can hardly enjoy it because a new goal has already sprung from your brain.
And if you don’t reach your goal or only after a long time? A huge pile of frustration is the result. You want to pull out all the stops to achieve that ‘holy’ result. Even more discipline, even more sacrifice. And even more annoyance, stress, health issues and divorce. The end justifies the means.
There is a second category of people who desperately want more and better but for whom that better is unattainable for them. They have covert ambitions but do not take active steps in that direction because they lack the confidence to achieve their goals. Or they take steps, but without conviction. This often results in jealousy and envy. They don’t grant their colleague that promotion or they are “bothered” by the neighbor who books a luxury vacation trip every year.
And without realizing it, these people get stuck in a web of “not being able to manifest anything. This is a victim role. And in this victim role, they constantly affirm ’there is nothing more for me’ or ‘I am not good enough’. The universe accurately gives you back what you send out: a constant deficit. These people do not weave a web of ‘more and more’ but a web of ‘constant lack’.
Is ambition wrong?
Imagine a painter who once started out of love for his craft and creates beautiful paintings. As his fame rises, he begins to become addicted to the fame. Eventually he no longer loves his painting but the benefits, the fame, it brings. Chances are, his painting will not improve.
This is a great example of how the ego has taken over and is building the web of “more fame. His original passion, the passion of his soul, has been replaced by a surrogate passion. His original ambition was to create beautiful paintings that make people happy. This ambition comes from his deeper layers and produces passion and joy. The ambition to become famous provides only momentary “external” pleasure when achieved. Only to be subsequently replaced by an even greater ambition.
Ambition, by definition, is neither right nor wrong. What matters is how you deal with it. Do you have a dream for a particular business? Can you enjoy building this business, with setbacks and obstacles and all? Do you enjoy it once the business stands? Maybe after a decade or so you have new ambitions regarding your business and start something new. Can you get back to work with passion here as well?
Enjoying the journey
Check with yourself if there is pleasure and regular enthusiasm in what you are doing. This pleasure or enthusiasm must come from within yourself. This does not come from what you do. In addition, acceptance is needed in situations when pleasure is momentarily lacking. Acceptance is acting out of surrender, doing what is needed without resisting it.
If you are not doing your things with pleasure or acceptance then you may wonder if you are on the right track. Probably then your ego is at the helm. For example, you work only for the money or everything must give way to one goal: to become the best at something. Now it takes plodding, stress and willpower to achieve your goal. You want to force something without it flowing.
It can help you consider what your motivations are for a particular ambition. Don’t look at others, then you are comparing again. Find out what motivates you, purely from yourself, regardless of what anyone else thinks. What is your motivation? Maybe the result gives you joy, but what about the journey towards it? Loving what you do is what gives you joy. The goal is secondary. It only serves to give you direction or challenge you to do your best.
Realize that the ego can take the helm almost silently. Especially when you achieve success, but also in the absence of success, in the victim role. So be constantly aware of your ego and its patterns. The more often you become aware of this and do things from your deeper desire, the more joy and passion will flow into your life. And the better you can keep your ambitions pure.
