Harness your ambition!

I suffer from a case of chronic ambition. Seriously. I have a tendency to dream so big and wide, and while I’m very good at getting these dreams started, I'm not so good at finishing what I start. One thing that I've found is that it becomes very difficult to keep these ambitions afloat if I’m constantly working on chasing after the next one. In my journey, I’ve discovered some things that might help you to harness your ambition and make the most of it:

1. Ambition is good

There might be a temptation to look at your ambition as something of a stumbling block, especially if you haven't ever taken the time to harness your ambition and get the best value out of it. But rest assured, ambition is a sign of a healthy outlook on life. Ambition is a key indicator of someone who desires to make progress and actually plans on getting there. Look at the most influential people in the world and the one trait that they all have in common is ambition – they strive to be the best at the thing that they stand out for. Ambition in and of itself is good, but as with many other things in life, ambition is best in moderation.

2. Ambition needs to be focused.

Perhaps you’re dreaming of finishing school with top results, running an animal shelter, trying your hand at a few extra-mural activities, training for the 2024 Olympics and have set plans in motion to become a chartered accountant. Great ambition. Poor focus. As with all good things in life, we need to exercise moderation in order to stay healthy and stable. Making the most of an ambitious attitude unfortunately will come at great sacrifice. No amount of bravado or can-do attitude will ever give you more hours in the day. To harness your ambition to work in your favour, you’ll need to decide what is most important to you and cut out the ambitions that will only hold you back.

3. Ambition requires planning.

I like to think of ambition as the starting point for great things, but where ambition starts a task, it’s the plan that will maintain it. Let’s say you’ve whittled down your ambitions and you’ve decided your main priority is to go to the 2024 Olympics. Your next step is to plot a course for achieving that goal. Without a plan, ambition looks chaotic, it runs after the first thing it can grasp and never finds stability. To really harness your ambition, you need to set milestones, research the best methods of attaining your goal and network with people who are doing the same thing. When you can clearly see the way-points, the journey becomes ten times easier.

4. Ambition has no value without discipline

No matter how clear your plans are, none of it matters if you don’t act on them. And this comes quite naturally for the ambitious. The initial action is not the issue, rather, sticking to the plan is where a lot of ambitious people fail. It’s easy to chase after a dream at the beginning stages, because all we need is the big picture, but go down the line a while and you will pick up obstacles, or perhaps you'll find a step in the plan that doesn’t work. And here it’s easy to just think, “That didn’t work, on to the next big thing”. But this is how we sell ourselves short. A lot of ambition is wasted on giving up on plans before we’ve given it a real shot. We need to have that discipline to see things through.

5. Ambition needs to be kept in check

Many ambitious people tend to supplement their ambition with optimism. But while we aim to achieve great things when we have loads of ambition, we need to stay objective in our progress. Unchecked ambition is dangerous, because it sets us up to achieve ‘at all costs’. This all-cost mentality leads us to believe that we are failures if we slow down or expand our timelines. When reality doesn’t meet the expectations we set, we tend to become dejected, but we need to allow ourselves some grace. In this way, to harness your ambition is to surround yourself with people who will help you keep your focus and remind you to slow down when needed.

6. Ambition breeds ambition

The end goal of ambition is always progress, whether that progress is personal or societal. Once we reach the end of a journey, having kept our focus, having stuck to the plan, having had the discipline to carry it through, our ambitious nature leads us to go for the next thing. And this is what makes the life of the ambitious person tricky. At some point in the journey from dream to accomplishment, our priorities will start to shift, we’ll dream up a next big thing or we might find that one of the ambitions we had previously side-lined to focus on our current goal starts tugging on our hearts again. Harnessing your ambition doesn’t mean you stop dreaming, but that you evaluate each new dream in the same way you did at the start of the journey. If it is a priority, set out a plan and keep steady progress so that you can pick it up easily once you’ve accomplished your main goal.

7. Ambition and faith work best together

At the end of the day our ambition is an extension of the creativity and passion with which we have been created. Supplementing our ambition with faith leaves us secure and stable even in the trying times. For me, knowing that God has everything in His control has always brought peace when I am honest and sincere about it. Pray about your ambitions, journey with God along the way, and keep in mind that our success isn’t measured in what we will or will not eventually accomplish, but that we have already attained the greatest success through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. All our other ambitions and accomplishments only adds to His glory:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

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Do you have any tips on how you harness your ambition? Be sure to sign in and leave a comment below.