The Nature of Ambition: How Serious Should We Take Ourselves?
Last week, we concluded some thoughts on the nature of ego and the way it affects different individuals’ approach to social entrepreneurship. While we tend to speak of ego usually negatively, I pointed out that at best, it serves as a basic motivating force for us to spring to action – even if some may not like the inherent “selfish” motivation.
Today, my thoughts have been circling around this idea of motivation and its big brother – ambition. Specifically, I have been wondering about how we can reconcile the notion of ambition, which deals by definition with the future, with the notion of being at peace and content with the present. Think about all the Buddhist teachings that encourage us to reject attachment, desire and expectations, in order to diminish or avoid suffering.
I suspect that there is a good number of people in the do-good and social entrepreneurship space today that would identify with Buddhist teachings (or perhaps, not?). If so, would it be ignorant of me to think that if you are a social entrepreneur or consider yourself active in this “social” sector, you probably have a considerable amount of ambition?
And if that is the case, do you have some advice for the Good Generation on how to balance forward-looking “ambition” with present-focused Buddhism? Can you have both? Answering this question may be a non-trivial component of the quest for happiness for many folks out there in the field, fighting the good battle.
What’s further at stake seems to be this: at a time when we keep saying that we need more and more people to engage, to strive, to change the world, we are implicitly saying that we need more people to follow the call of their ambition to make their dreams a reality. Where, then, does this leave us?
Looked at initially, the question of ambition would seem to confront us with a dilemma from a Buddhist standpoint (for lack of any better term).
On the one hand, we consider ambition as a positive character trait or feeling in that it by definition forces us to have some sort of goals, which in return exist to fulfill some purpose. With goals come also naturally expectations about the future state of things – ideally, the attainment of those goals. In other words, ambition creates desires that we seek to satisfy. In doing so, could it be argued that “living in the presence” in the traditional “Buddhistic sense” sounds sort of difficult to do?
On the other hand, thus, Buddhism teaches us that having desires is usually, well, undesirable. Of course, experts would elaborate that even in Buddhism, which is sometimes falsely associated with inaction and passivity, there is such a thing as “good” and “bad” desires. The latter, not surprisingly, would include the yearning for material and worldly goods in an expectation to become happier once they are obtained. The former refers to those desires that seek to help others, anything related to spreading love and compassion, etc. I’m no expert at this and will only tread as far as I think I’m making sense here.
But the point is this: no matter how you look at desires and goals, whether they fall in the “good” or “bad” category, if you believe in the premise of Buddhism, Zen, Taoism or similar teachings, how can you do either one without having expectations? No matter if I seek a Lamborghini in life or a carbon-neutral world, I have expectations nonetheless. With ambition, I am driven to fulfill these expectations and work my hardest to attain them because I believe it will make me happier or more fulfilled than I am today. Yet expectation breeds a tendency to take ourselves quite seriously (and even more so the bigger and loftier our goals) and doesn’t that in return lead us to suffering?
Another way of looking at the world without expectations, according to some Buddhists, is that we should consider our lives and projects like playing one big game. The key is to have fun while doing it. If good things happen – great – if they don’t, that’s fine as well, as long as we do not expect too much.
So my question this week is, if you are a changemaker, a wannabe, or in the field driving an ambitious agenda of social change as an entrepreneur, what do you make of your ambition? Does it make you “suffer”? Do you feel ultimately happy doing what you’re doing, striving to reach your goals? Are you able to enjoy all the present while you strive towards changing the future? Is it possible to take our work serious but not ourselves if our goals are so ?
Or is happiness not your end goal anyway? How many of you consider your calling, the goal of your ambition, the highest end in itself, your “raison d’etre”? For example, is the attainment of justice, even if it costs you significant hardship, pain and suffering along the way, more important to you than your happiness in the moment?
(Note: use the “Leave a Reply” box below please to respond to this Weekly Ponder. If you have responses to others, please direct it to their specific entries. Although I call this “Weekly”, please continue to add to this when you see fit. I prefer conversations stay alive as long as people find them appealing and personally relevant.)
I love blogs that ask questions. Well done!
Was more traditionally ambitious in my 20s and 30s. Where drive to make something of my individual self was primary drive supporting underlying need to make my planet a better place. Those were fun years although nowhere near as fun as now. In my 40s, that ambition has flipped. I get the profound connection of everything and everyone. I live it. So ambition, if you can call it that, now is more about having fun, playing, collective. Playing with ways to open ourselves to the wonder and beauty of our planet and ourselves.
Today every smile, kind word, and welcoming gesture are profound self and planet changing acts. Listening to people’s stories, sharing their stories of how amazing humans are, holding their hands IS changing me and my planet. I don’t really need individual ambition to do this. I just need other people, dogs, cats, etc. around me.
Don’t think I’d change who I was though, because who I was got me here.
Lori, thanks so much for sharing! It’s great to hear about where your journey with ambition took you over the years.
Would you advise others in their 20s and 30s today to follow this path? Also, do you think that the ultimate result of the “40s ambition” that you refer to can accomplish just as much in terms of making the world better as that form of individual ambition that drove you for two decades before?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
I would advise others to follow their own path, not mine. The hand pointing at the moon is not the moon, as some smart dude said once.
I don’t know, to answer the second question, although I strongly suspect far more for me, or I wouldn’t be here.
What you refer to as 40s ambition I’d call lived collective experience. It’s when you recognize your purpose, your group’s purpose, and your community’s purpose as the exact same thing, your “self” as all these selves. Individual ambition isn’t needed now, most days. openness to the world’s amazingness is. It’s the difference between being in control (and feeling bad when things go wrong) and being so collectively agile that you can work with whatever shows up (and almost never needing to feel bad, because things can’t go wrong, it’s all learning and growing), that’s how I experience it anyway. Extraordinarily practical and effective actually, moving together as fluid instead of individually as solid. Makes being an individual more fun too.
Hi Thien,
I just discovered your blog and I’ve liked what I’ve read so far. I’m still trying to hash some of this out for myself, but I’ll take a stab at it.
To me, happiness is the currency of how I want to measure my life. I’m sure everyone has their own definition of what happiness is, but to me it is enjoying relationships and engaging in fulfilling activities. I feel that this includes doing things you enjoy and can get better at. I think ambition ties to enjoying what I do in that I like fulfilling my potential, but wouldn’t sacrifice it for the things that I think are important in life.
Hey thanks for your thoughts, imabusinessman! It’s good to hear that you have hashed out for yourself the question of ambition apparently clearly in favor of happiness first and all things regarding “fulfillment of potential” and similar flavors of ambition as secondary.
Curious: if “being happy” to you involves some activity fulfilling to you but that some may not call directly related to saving the world, are you also okay putting such type of “ambition” or “social responsibility” aside for the sake of your own fulfillment?
No trick question, but it relates more towards the gist of the dilemma of my “ponder” this week.
All the best,
Thien
Hypothetically, if being a hermit in a cave makes someone happy, then I think they should do it. I don’t think they should do something that “saves the world” if it makes them resentful or makes them feel that they are sacrificing something more fulfilling.
That being said, if you are an empathetic individual, it seems like you would want to add value to society. I think that can take many forms. Maybe it won’t be seen directly as saving the world, but a specialized role is a valuable cog in a complicated puzzle that keeps our economy running.
In regards to ambition, I wouldn’t feel happy if I wasn’t making use of my potential. As a result, I don’t see a case (at least for me), where those two don’t go together. The only case I can see this changing is if I had family and kids whose well-being depended on me.
Just some late night musings.