Category Archives: Ambition

Ambition is the path to success

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“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”

—Bill Bradley, two-time NBA champion and former U.S. Senator

Image from Unsplash

When was the last time you took a road trip?

On most trips, especially the long ones, I always fill up the tank and check the tires and fluids before we depart.

Given today’s quote, ambition seems similar to having a map and only having a few gallons of fuel to get going.  Persistence is the knowledge and ability to fill up and refuel along the way to make sure you get you where you’re going.

EXERCISE:

What are all the necessary ingredients to your personal and professional success journeys?

How have your ambitions and persistence contributed to getting you where you wanted to go?

Friday Review: Ambition

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Friday Review: Ambition

How well-defined are your ambitions? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

“Ambition is a get-a-head-ache.”

 

 

 

“If you’re too busy to sit for 10 minutes you need to sit still for an hour.”

 

 

 

“The forced separation from ordinary ambitions temporarily right sizes one’s life.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re too busy to sit for 10 minutes you need to sit still for an hour

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“If you’re too busy to sit for 10 minutes you need to sit still for an hour.”

—Zen Proverb

Image from Unsplash by Alex Ware

During my busiest working years, it was a source of pride for myself and many of my colleagues to pat ourselves on the back for our workaholic tendencies.

When asked how someone was doing words like slammed, jammed, and swamped were ways we stoked our egos and compared ourselves to mere mortals.

We were not only booked virtually every minute of the day, some folks actually overbooked themselves to show how incredibly important and indispensable they were.

For many of these people this way of operating had a double edge with a considerable downside to their health and their espoused important relationships.

EXERCISE:

To what degree do you include buffer/relaxation time into your daily schedule?

Consider starting with blocks of ten minutes and work your way into hours, days, etc.

Feel free to reply to this post on how this proverb applies to you and your world.

Ambition is a get-a-head-ache

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“Ambition is a get-a-head-ache.”

—Vern McClellan, Author of Wise Words from a Wise Guy

Image from Unsplash by Kyle Glenn

For much of my life, I’ve been pretty ambitious. How about you?

Examine your school years, sports, and even sibling rivalries — how much did you want to get ahead and stay ahead?

Where have your ambitions served you well?

Where have they caused you to stumble and experience pain?

Where is getting ahead of others driving your every action, and where is it driving you crazy?

EXERCISE:

How might you relieve the ache of ambition by focusing on getting ahead of yourself instead of always taking on the world?

The forced separation from ordinary ambitions

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“The forced separation from ordinary ambitions temporarily right sizes one’s life.”

—Arthur C. Brooks, faculty member of the Harvard Business School

Image from Pixels by Lukáš Vaňátko

How often do you wake up in the morning with a strong sense of peace and calm?

What percent of the time do your thoughts spring into action with all the to-dos for the day, before your feet even hit the floor?

When do you first check your phone for texts or emails that have piled up overnight?

How many truly important messages do you receive each day, and how many do you consider clutter of junk?

Although we are now well into summer, there is always time to do a bit of spring cleaning.

How would some forced separation from your ordinary ambitions that clutter your various inboxes help you right size your life?

EXERCISE:

Where would unsubscribing and removing various barriers to your aliveness make the biggest difference?

Where can and will you begin today?

Friday Review: Ambition

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Friday Review: Ambition

How well-defined are your ambitions? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.

 

“The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

 

 

 

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

 

 

“We are capable of greater things than we realize.”

 

 

 

 

Friday Review: Ambition

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Friday Review: Ambition

How ambitious are you? Here are a few ambition-related posts you may have missed.

 

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

 

 

 

“We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.”

 

 

 

“Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts. Aim for being heroic at consistency.”

 

 

 

 

Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts

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“Don’t aim for consistently heroic efforts. Aim for being heroic at consistency.”

—Brad Stulberg, Performance Coach

Image of a boy shooting an arrow

Image from Unsplash by Niklas Tidbury

We all get excited when we observe heroic acts in the world. These efforts almost always require extraordinary levels of physical, mental, and emotional effort. Unfortunately, as Brad points out, we all know that these efforts are not sustainable.

Although not as sexy, consistency provides a compounding effect that is both sustainable and sticky. These habitual actions often result in excellence in virtually any life domain you choose.

EXERCISE:

Select a single area of your life where you will make the heroic effort to be more consistent. Feel free to reply to this post and share the area you selected.

We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories

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“We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.”

—Dan Sullivan, co-founder of Strategic Coach

Image from Humanlongevity.com

How long do you expect to live?

Dan Sullivan, the co-founder of Strategic Coach, expects to live 156 years. Over the years, he has had a voracious passion for longevity and optimal health. In the Exponential Wisdom Podcast, he and Peter Diamandis explore where the world is headed by discussing cutting edge technologies and global trends.

Exploring topics such as gene editing, stem cells, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, they look into the multi-disciplinary crystal ball of the future of health care. Peter Diamandis, founder of Human Longevity, Inc., expects to live 700 years. He is best known for his X-Prize Foundation and competition, and the commercialization of space. Sullivan and Diamandis encourage the rest of us to release the idea of traditional retirement. They council us to stay actively engaged in making our future ambitions far more extraordinary than our past.

EXERCISE:

Consider reading Peter’s book Abundance, or Dan’s book The Laws of Lifetime Growth, to help guide you to an even more extraordinary future.

Check out their podcast on this and other provocative subjects at exponentialwisdom.com

Friday Review of Ambition

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FRIDAY REVIEW: Ambition

How ambitious are you? Here are a few ambition-related posts you may have missed. Click the link to read the full message.

 

“If there is something to gain and nothing to lose by asking, by all means ask.”

 

 

 

 

“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.”

 

 

 

“The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”