Do you think you have more or less than the average person? Do you think excessive ambition is an admirable quality? What are your greatest ambitions? Do you really believe you'll be able to accomplish them? If you were to live a long, healthy, happy life, but never fulfill these ambitions, could you still die in relative contentment?
Nah, can't recall i ever had any. Must be my sybaritic upbringing - always had the impression that ambition is for arriviste suckers and other unfortunate parvenus, something shameful. No wonder i got nowhere in life. :(
On the bright side though, the lack of it allowed me to explore & appreciate the wonders of the external world, rather than being tied up in a wild goose chase. Getting on from one day to another is as far as my ambition stretches, been always like that.
Excessive ambition is a one-way ticket to failure, if you ask me.
My ambition was to get money for free, so that I don't have to go out and work for it, and I've achieved that.
Every day is a holiday for me. I can wake up when I want, go to sleep when I want and pretty much do whatever I want during the day. Sure, I wish I was getting more money for it, but I'm certainly not complaining. I'm living contentedly enough. At least, for now anyway.
If sometime in the future I need to get another job for whatever reason, then I am fine with that. As much as I'd rather not work, working doesn't really bother me. I've had quite a few jobs in the past. So, I know what it means to work for a living.
by TheCrowOnTheFenceDo you think you have more or less than the average person? Do you think excessive ambition is an admirable quality? What are your greatest ambitions? Do you really believe you'll be able to accomplish them? If you were to live a long, healthy, happy life, but never fulfill these ambitions, could you still die in relative contentment?
I have a lot more ambition that the average person, but I don't think that that's an admirable quality, though it's treated as such within the confines of western society. I believe that I will be able to accomplish all of my ambitions provided that I am not assassinated before I have the chance to. Which is quite possible.
I honestly don't see how I could live a happy, contented life without fulfilling my ambitions. I have an immense amount of respect for those who can; I just don't see myself as being able to do so. That being said, if I'm hit by a train tomorrow I do believe that I could be reasonably content with what I have achieved so far. A sudden death that I presumably didn't cause would eliminate, for me at least, the burning need for me to fulfill my aspirations. A long life without such fulfillment would not be a happy one for me.
I'd consider myself fairly ambitious.
Having excessive ambition is a double edged blade, in the business and employment world it makes you invaluable but, I find it complicates and riddles your personal life with hardships.
My greatest ambition is to become wealthy enough that I can pursue the goals in my life freely and not have to worry about working ever again. I'm optimistic about my achieving that status.
My worst fear, is too die without maximizing my potential. To fall short and realize what should be mine isn't.
It isn't difficult to be "ambitious" in comparison to the lackadaisical drifting that most people live by. The average person works an entry level job, or practices some trade requiring minimal training or education. He is a part of a family unit that satisfies his basic emotional needs. The average person wants to feel loved, excited, and yet secure in his life. So he finds stable partners and stable jobs, and feeds off the dramatics of those dynamics to satisfy his quota for turbulence, and then he lives stably-ever-after.
What is ambition, anyway? Who are the truly ambitious people of society? Are they our valedictorians with perfect test scores? Are they our drug dealers and stockbrokers who will cut the corners of the law to surreptitiously make large sums of cash? Are they the people who organize food drives for the homeless? Are they any permutation of the go-getter character?
What is ambition? The drive to conform to some preferred image? The lust to sense things beyond the horizon? Initiative as a form of catharsis? In simpler terms: The drive to get what you want? Or is it an excessive wanting? I am not ambitious enough to go further with this.