Ambition is generally considered a good thing by society, as it encourages endeavour and the pursuit of improvement and achievement.
Some people are more ambitious than others by nature. And children these days are notably urged by both the system and parents alike to achieve more at an ealier stage, which may or may not be a good thing.
But is ambition good as part of a stressbusting™ lifestyle?
The answer to this, we believe, lies in what a person's perception of ambition is.
Most people who are ambitious are so because they seek increased status (such as promotion), remuneration (eg a pay rise, position (like respected head of a family or group) or attention (perhaps to appear on TV or have over a million followers on YouTube).
While there is nothing wrong with ambition in principle, it can become all consuming for some individuals and as a result affect their emotions, health and home life balance.
Realistic ambition on the other hand imbues a person with a great sense of optimism because interim benchmarks can be identified and enjoyed. If someone can imagine an achievement and move toward that achievement in such a measurable and visible fashion, that helps direct a positive life course and other wellness decisions can willingly be made to compliment the exercise.
But where a person is over ambitious, then its potential futile pursuit can leave them drained and depressed. And if it becomes clear that the ambition is indeed out of reach, that person may out of denial or prospective embarrassment fail to recognise or acknowledge it, which can exacerbate the damage.
Take an example. Apparently 76% of college athletes genuinely believe they will make it pro. But yet only 2% of them do.
What physical, financial and emotional sacrifices must the 74% who did not make it have made to their lives and choices by making pro status their main ambition in life at such a young age. And what other things could they have done had they not? Developed other skills to make them more employable, perhaps? Relaxed more? Consumed a more balanced, less extreme diet? In some regrettable cases, not taken performance enhancing drugs that will hinder their health down the line?
In truth they will never know what they would otherwise have done, but it seems incontestable that they will have missed opportunities for growth and development elsewhere.
For these reasons, we do not think it is appropriate for parents to live out their own missed ambitions through their children, as this can fetter the children developing and acting on their own interests and preferences. In other words, developing as people in their own rights.
To be a healthy, stressbusting™ asset, ambition for us has to be tempered with an examination of probability of success against cost of the effort involved. Our previous post entitled "Break Time Quickie - The Importance of a Stressbusting™ “WTP” Analysis" explains the dynamics and value of this kind of exercise in detail.
And (a bit like 'playing lottery or lending' to family!!!), we think a person must be willing at the outset to lose out if there is no return on any ambition. This does not mean being pessimistic, but rather being realistic.
In other words, ambition, consisting as it does of a commitment to improvement, self discipline and honest endeavour, should be treated as a lifestyle wellness enhancer of itself, rather than its value being measured by any end success in terms of increased status, remuneration or otherwise.
So by all means "Reach for the Sky" but "Keep it Real" in the process.
For further info relevant to this post, please see our ealier posts entitled "Break Time Quickie: StressBust™ by learning from the mistakes of others as well as your own", "Open the Door to Imperfection – it can be Liberating as well as Stressbusting™" and "The Dangers of Denial to StressBusting™".
Much Ambitious Love
MikeyM™&LouLoU™
Xxxxx🤞🤜🤛👏💥🧡💜🥳 xxxxx