People seem to think there’s an ambition crisis in our world these days. Our young people have lost all ambition. Those damn kids and their technology. They don’t have to work hard for anything – they have instant gratification at their fingertips. The freaking millennials and their entitled attitudes. They’re not able to comprehend the word “no.” No one knows how to work for anything anymore. They have no drive, no vision, no ambition!
Sound familiar? Luckily I’m not going to pull at that particular thread. In fact, I am going to challenge the idea altogether and suggest we’re looking at it all wrong. I don’t think our problem is lack of ambition at all. In fact, I think ambition is finally making a comeback. I think we’re on the edge of a new era. The start of something I call empowered ambition.
Let me explain.
Remember the good ol’ days? Back before the bills and the full-time job, the mortgage payment, car repairs, and dependents. Back when you had ample free time, frivolous spending habits you weren’t in the least bit ashamed of, and big, big dreams. What did you dream of back then? What did you want to be when you grew up? More importantly, what did you want to DO when you grew up? Were you bold with these dreams?
Now flash forward to today. Did you grow up to be what you wanted when you were younger? Did you grow up to do the things you dreamed of? Are you bold in the way you live your life today? If we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us would answer with a quiet “no.”
Why is that? Where did those dreams go? Where did those plans fall apart? Why did you allow yourself to stop working towards your ambitions?
I hope you notice that I never once asked “where did your ambitions go?” I didn’t ask you why you lost your ambitions. Know why? Because they didn’t go anywhere! You didn’t lose them! They don’t just fall out of your pocket when you pull out your phone, doomed to being trampled by sidewalk stompers for the rest of your life. They don’t get eaten by the dryer along with your missing socks. Your ambitions don’t go anywhere. You silence them.
Before we keep going let’s make sure we all know what ambition is. Ambition is simply a strong desire to do or achieve something. It’s a determination to succeed. It requires hard work and dedication. It’s exciting and invigorating and self-motivating. Ambition is what gets you happily out of bed earlier than usual. Ambition is what keeps you in the zone working later than usual. Ambition doesn’t take “no” for an answer, because ambition will always find a way. Ambition wants the success bad enough that the hard work is almost fun – or at least worth it.
Do you have something like that in your life? Are the things you’re spending your time and energy on ambitious? Do they fill your cup while somehow simultaneously exhausting your resources (in the best way possible!)? Do you look forward to getting out of bed to get to work? Do you find yourself bringing friends and family into the fold on the exciting new projects you’re working on?
Do you even like what you’re doing?
If the answer is no… then I’ve got one final question for you. Why the hell are you still doing it?
Maybe it pays the bills. Maybe it’s what you thought you wanted. Maybe you’re good at it. Maybe you feel it’s too late to change paths. Maybe you’re right. But maybe… just maybe… it’s time to start thinking a little differently.
We don’t ever lose our ambition, but we do make choices every single day to sell it to someone else for their cause instead of our own. Our ambition is our dream, our vision, our determination, our passion. Are you using your time and energy to work towards your own visions with determination and passion or are you spending all your time draining yourself working toward someone else’s? If you find that your day is draining you, it’s usually a good indication that what you’re spending your time and energy on isn’t filling your cup. It doesn’t align with you. You don’t care.
We need to stop spending our limited time on this earth on things we don’t care about. We need to stop selling our ambitions to other people in service of their dreams. We need to stop being too afraid to chase our own ambitions. Why is your boss’s ambition more important that yours? Why is your friend’s opinion on worthy causes more valid than your own? Why are you letting your in-laws, your parents, your friends, people you don’t even care about have a say in what you decide to dedicate yourself to? Why are you busting your back and killing yourself over someone else’s dream?
Enough is enough!
It’s time we start looking past the ambitions we’ve allowed others to put on us and tapping back into our own ambitions. We need to realize what we truly want and what we are willing to work hard for. And then we need to go after those dreams with abandon. We need to be a little more like those young people and millenials that are willing to say “no” to things that don’t light them up. We need to stop thinking that if someone isn’t working hard on something it means they’re not a hard worker. That’s faulty thinking. You shouldn’t do it to others and you definitely shouldn’t let others do it to you.
What will our world look like when people chase empowered ambition? What will come of our efforts at work and at home when we’re spending our time on things we care about and projects we feel are worthwhile? When are you going to start empowering yourself to chase your ambitions wholeheartedly? I hope the answer is NOW.
How do you uncover your ambitions? Try to answer the following questions:
- Make a list of things you love to do! What do you find yourself lost in? What tasks seem to make the time fly?
- What did you want to be when you grew up? Why? What was it that appealed so much to you? Can you find a way to bring that into your life today?
- Make a list of things you believe are worth working hard at (being a great parent, cooking an amazing meal, running a sub-7-minute mile, traveling the world, etc.)
- If you couldn’t fail, what would you be doing?
- If money wasn’t an obstacle (you don’t need to work for money – you have as much as you’ll ever need), what would you spend your time doing?
- Solidify your why. Why is this your ambition? Knowing your why will help with others try to persuade you away from your ambition.
- Share your excitement with your friends and family! Update them, keep them involved, ask them to keep you accountable.