When I started practising gratitude, I thought it was the opposite of ambition. I thought I had to kill my ambition, be happy with what I have and live a happy life. I always felt there was something wrong with that definition. The world around us is built by ambitious people doing great things. Over time, I have changed my opinion about the relationship between ambition and gratitude.
In hindsight, the source of my ambition has been, in part, anger. Anger towards that relative who might have treated my parents badly because they had financial troubles, anger towards that bad manager who said I don’t have a career path if I choose to join a startup, anger towards that annoying coworker who said that it’s not going to work. I wanted to prove people wrong.
I had made up an enemy to find the energy to keep doing hard things. The fact is that there is no enemy. Nobody is out there trying to beat you or wishing bad stuff on you. People are busy in their own lives and have their own problems. There might be exceptions to this, but optimising for exceptions is never a good idea.
Will that help you succeed? Probably. I think it’s a good place to start.
When I say the source of my ambition has been partly anger, it has also been from wanting to do great things and inspire people. When I go for my next big quest, the source of my energy will be the latter.
My ambition will come from a place of “I live an abundant and blessed life. I should make the best out of it.”, and I think that’s the version of ambition that can co-exist with gratitude. Maybe this kind of thinking comes from a place of abundance.
I’m incredibly thankful for where I’m today, but that doesn’t have to stop me from dreaming great things. I’m not going to put my entire self-worth on that quest, nor would I beat myself up if it doesn’t work out.