Ambition
A reclaiming.
I wish more people were more ambitious. It feels somewhat heretical to say these days. We’re trending towards a post-hustle-culture era. Wellbeing and living a more balanced life are taking precedence. And rightly so. However, I worry that societally that we’re swinging the pendulum too far. That self-care is melting into sedation. In the attempt to protect ourselves from the onslaught of external stressors - global instability, a cost-of-living crisis, an increasingly negative media - there is a retreat towards distraction and simplicity. The pursuit of less becomes more attractive, partly because it’s something we can control. My concern is that this is coming at a cost we’re failing to acknowledge.
In my social circle, talented, thoughtful people are retreating from ambition. Having been burnt at the stake of work life, many of us (myself included) pulled back from engaging in ambitious pursuits. It was a shield against the forces that didn’t serve us. Often for something that didn’t serve much of anything. It’s a phenomenon I’ve seen across a lot of social media, especially here on Substack. The burned-out performance focussed employee, to healing human working on gaining clarity and connection pipeline is real. No judgement, I’m on it. Does the quest for inner-peace need to come at the cost of ambition? I don’t want to believe it. I don't think collectively we can afford to believe it. What will the world look like if only those who haven’t come to terms with their demons are the only ones to build it at scale? What happens if those driven by destructive patterns continue to be the outsized catalysts of change? I’m not advocating that we all rush to delete our meditation apps and embrace increasing consumerism or endless achievement hurdles. However, in the words of poet and philosopher John O’Donohue:
“Everyone is involved, whether they like it or not, in the construction of the world. So it’s never as given as it actually looks. You’re always shaping and building it.”
Why not choose to shape it a bit more?
We’re facing seismic challenges. The world needs ambitious people to do ambitious things. Ambitious things like developing abundant clean energy. Reimagining cities. Orchestrating peace processes. Curing diseases. Creating art which re-engages us with our own humanity. Educating. Healing. Improving baseline standards of living. These are the things that the world needs on a large scale. Future-building shouldn’t just be the domain of the billionaire classes, or those who sacrifice the collective good at the altar of greed and power (looking at you dopamine-hacking apps).
How can we reclaim ambition as a force-for-good? As something that sustains rather than depletes us? The starting point is to understand where it tends to go wrong, by understanding the different types of ambition.
Types of ambition
There are 4 common types of ambition I’ve come across:
Linear Ambition: The pursuit of pre-designated achievements that are societally approved. Often status enhancing to a certain audience. It’s believing that life is series of milestones - a degree from the right university, a promotion in the right profession, a mortgage in the right neighbourhood etc. There is nothing wrong with linear ambition per se. Except that by its very nature, the goals are set by someone else. You can easily end up excelling up an externally set defined path that doesn’t fulfil you.
Obsessive Ambition: It’s the chasing of a very specific dream. An Olympic gold, a job at Google, a need to solve a little understood scientific phenomenon, the desire to create the most perfect croissant, you get my drift. It is an ambition that consumes in a very narrow way. Again there is nothing wrong with it. A lot of innovation is driven by obsession. Where we need to be mindful is if the ambition is a positive or negative amplifier in our lives.
Undirected Ambition: It’s the feeling of wanting to do something big but not quite knowing where to direct your ambition. It’s potential energy, stored inside waiting to be released. It’s a powerful drive in need of direction. Undirected ambition has a tendency to get hijacked by ambitious environments (startups a primary source of this), leading to the person working hard to achieve an ambition that ultimately doesn't feed their desires.
Broad Ambition: It’s where ambition is diffused over a large surface area. It tends to operate at two extremes; 1) competitive ambition, the wanting to be the best at everything, and 2) the balance ambition, wanting all aspects of life to be in harmony. Both are laudable goals but can have negative consequences. Needing to always be #1 or endlessly striving for work-life-balance can cause you to limit yourself. It’s the one time of ambition that can inadvertently promote embracing fewer growth opportunities in the pursuit of it.
But what if we could add a 5th, that replaced the four common types of ambition above. I’d like to make a case for:
Purposeful Ambition: The pursuit of big goals aligned with our unique purpose. The recognition that we can craft the world to be more aligned with our values by chasing audacious dreams. By believing that change is possible. It’s making available the ideas, materials and execution we need to build the future you want to see. It’s accepting that your life will be unbalanced. In return, you have an opportunity to create meaningful change.
If purposeful ambition feels too individualistic or pollyannaish for you then reflect on why you believe that to be the case. Which scripts cause you to think your purpose and actions can’t drive change? We can underestimate the impact we have on others. In the words of Dr. Caroline Leaf:
“Your purpose is not the thing you do. It is the thing that happens in others when you do what you do.”
Seasons of Life
Of course there are seasons where we can’t muster the strength to be ambitious on a grander scale. Life happens. Sometimes the most important thing for us to do at a given period is to attend to our health or loved ones. There are also periods where we are in a transition phase, perhaps re-evaluating our lives between one period of ambition (often caused by burnout or a natural ending) to the next period of ambition. It is in this stage that we can embrace the fertile void, a Gestalt concept, which describes the undefined state which is often a precursor to something new.
You can’t rush the reigniting of ambition (or if you do it’s often a return to the default linear path). You can however, nurture yourself in a way that over time begins to refuel your ambition. Read interesting books, explore ideas and places, create anything, reconnect with yourself. Trust the process will lead to a spark.
Where to from here?
Ambition is a precious resource. Everything we enjoy and rely upon was created by someone’s ambition. Yet, much of the world’s ambition is misdirected. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The desire to achieve things pulses at its own rhythms, drawing an otherwise disparate group of people together. We can collectively harness ambition again. Direct it towards building something more meaningful. Where to from here? Start by reclaiming ambition on a personal level. Dream big. Know the forces that are driving you. Decide if those are aligned with your values and the life you want to see created around you. Then begin.
Very good framing of direction!