What is ambition? Does ambition mean to want something? And, are there conditions on it? Do we have to want something that redeems us in the eyes of society? Do you have ambition? Is it important to have it?
If you don’t do anything about what you want, you’re not all that ambitious about it… you just are a person drooling over the object of your desire(s).
I think ambition is simply a motivation device that we use to identify a destination.
I also think it can have variable influences depending on our age and I think maybe we adjust our destinations as we perceive of their relevance in relation to our actual lives.
When I was very young, I wanted to be “boss” I became a boss of sorts at a young age and came to the conclusion that being responsible for others actually sucks. I tried to escape and become a “not boss”, but with more personal responsibility. Just when I thought I was free, I got pulled back in. I came to understand that being boss was inevitable and after years of upward bossififcationism I just jumped off and thought, if I am going to be a boss anyway, I may as well try being the boss of me. Ambition realized the way I unknowingly set myself up for.
My ambitions have shifted. One ambition is to learn how to have fun again. I forgot. Another is to feel contentment for what I have, versus running on some hamster wheel to acquire more. Another is to just allow myself to be who I am and not worry about how I am perceived by others, while not being condescending towards others who just don’t get it…yet.
@spitfire3dc Contentment is a wise thing to have ambition for. I feel like I spent a lot of life running. At some point I have gotten tired of the running, because now when I look back I think about how I actually could have been content with a situation, but I chose not to. Gratitude is another thing to strive for and creates happiness.
I also like what you said about not being condescending. One unspoken message I am getting out of my social work 601 class is to remove more judgement. I look at it more like, “this person or this group believes this or has this thought”, rather than me labeling their ideologies as bad or wrong.
Ambition is either the point where drive meets focus; or the point where focus generates drive.
I think we all have it; perhaps even to the point where a focus of having no ambition can become one’s ambition.
The pop-ambitions of society play in circles throughout human history. Which would seem to indicate that they are just distractions.
The ambitions common to our species seem callow at best; circular and cyclical: with considerable element of defeat built-in
So I look for the uncommon ambitions, and specifically the one that would seem to have the longest focus I can currently fathom. Which means I will never run out of drive or focus: even when lesser ambitions are fulfilled fail or expire.
There are as many names for this ambition as there are societies and peoples. Truth. Unity. Oneness. God. The ambition is seeking; participation; learning; Fellowship.
I ran all my life and my ambition has run out. Now, in retirement, we sit back and enjoy what we have saved for our senior years. We enjoy street fairs and parties. Today Immortal Pirate took me out to the country to be with bison and have a great country breakfast with friends. Tomorrow, we will go to a Pirate Party on a floating restaurant on Lake Pleasant’s Scorpion Bay. We will be pirates for a day. Ambition is behind us and now it is fun finding adventures to enjoy.
5 responses to “ambition”
If you don’t do anything about what you want, you’re not all that ambitious about it… you just are a person drooling over the object of your desire(s).
I think ambition is simply a motivation device that we use to identify a destination.
I also think it can have variable influences depending on our age and I think maybe we adjust our destinations as we perceive of their relevance in relation to our actual lives.
When I was very young, I wanted to be “boss” I became a boss of sorts at a young age and came to the conclusion that being responsible for others actually sucks. I tried to escape and become a “not boss”, but with more personal responsibility. Just when I thought I was free, I got pulled back in. I came to understand that being boss was inevitable and after years of upward bossififcationism I just jumped off and thought, if I am going to be a boss anyway, I may as well try being the boss of me. Ambition realized the way I unknowingly set myself up for.
My ambitions have shifted. One ambition is to learn how to have fun again. I forgot. Another is to feel contentment for what I have, versus running on some hamster wheel to acquire more. Another is to just allow myself to be who I am and not worry about how I am perceived by others, while not being condescending towards others who just don’t get it…yet.
@spitfire3dc Contentment is a wise thing to have ambition for. I feel like I spent a lot of life running. At some point I have gotten tired of the running, because now when I look back I think about how I actually could have been content with a situation, but I chose not to. Gratitude is another thing to strive for and creates happiness.
I also like what you said about not being condescending. One unspoken message I am getting out of my social work 601 class is to remove more judgement. I look at it more like, “this person or this group believes this or has this thought”, rather than me labeling their ideologies as bad or wrong.
Ambition is either the point where drive meets focus; or the point where focus generates drive.
I think we all have it; perhaps even to the point where a focus of having no ambition can become one’s ambition.
The pop-ambitions of society play in circles throughout human history. Which would seem to indicate that they are just distractions.
The ambitions common to our species seem callow at best; circular and cyclical: with considerable element of defeat built-in
So I look for the uncommon ambitions, and specifically the one that would seem to have the longest focus I can currently fathom. Which means I will never run out of drive or focus: even when lesser ambitions are fulfilled fail or expire.
There are as many names for this ambition as there are societies and peoples. Truth. Unity. Oneness. God. The ambition is seeking; participation; learning; Fellowship.
I ran all my life and my ambition has run out. Now, in retirement, we sit back and enjoy what we have saved for our senior years. We enjoy street fairs and parties. Today Immortal Pirate took me out to the country to be with bison and have a great country breakfast with friends. Tomorrow, we will go to a Pirate Party on a floating restaurant on Lake Pleasant’s Scorpion Bay. We will be pirates for a day. Ambition is behind us and now it is fun finding adventures to enjoy.