Paradox of Ambition

 Growing up I was frequently asked one question, “Who do you want to become when you are older?”  “it's ok you are still young… you will figure it out…but you must find it.. You must find your Ambition”.  

So what is Ambition? As per the dictionary:

Ambition /amˈbɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

• a strong desire to do or achieve something."her ambition was to become a pilot”

• desire and determination to achieve success

Achieve something? Achieve success? In what? Ahh…. to become a successful person in the future. 

So the obsession started when i was 14, i was enamoured by my uncles life as an Army General and I knew i was going to become an Army officer when i grow up. But that lasted for 2 years as I realised that I will have to run 10 km everyday to just pass the training and my attraction soon faded away.  But I was desperate and in panci, I started to look for another ambition. Another person that I could emulate in the future.  Afterall, only losers have no aim. 

Next I was going to be a pilot and roam the world. That sounded cool but lasted 12 months. Then it struck me! How about a filmmaker? After all, I am passionate about films. So there it was.. My new ambition at 18 to be a film director. Nevermind that it was the 90s and i lived in Delhi with no film industry connections at all. 

Today I am 40 and I am a filmmaker and fortunate enough to have pursued my true passion and therefore living my Ambition. However, even after achieving and becoming what I wanted to be, I still don't feel like it and still find myself dissatisfied as  I continue to chase a future, and my Ambition. Now it’s to become a more successful filmmaker or a better version of myself in the future. Will it ever end, I have started to wonder?

So here is the paradox. Ambition is the desire to be successful at something in the future. It makes you envision a tomorrow that is imaginative and often an emulation of someone else's life.  But most people who advocate Ambition don't explain one fundamental thing.  Ambition is nothing but a result.  Now another common term used is passion. You will never succeed if you don't find what you are passionate about. Even then a lot of times passion is mistakenly derived from an ambition that stems from emulation. Even when some of us who are lucky enough to pursue what we are truly passionate about, we still end up imitating a future version of us, calling it ambition. 

Moreover if we don't achieve this future imaginated version of us. This leads to disappointment and feeling of failure. 

Therefore, Ambition instigates a vertical approach to life which forces you to live in the future and thereby neglecting the present. 

Now what do I mean by a vertical approach?? It means a forward thinking approach that is only obsessed with climbing the ladder and becoming what you have envisioned. However as per the Gita: 

“You only have a right to your efforts not the result.”

Which also means that god/universe has other plans and there is no guarantee that you will achieve what you have envisioned.  The danger of the vertical approach is that the focus on the future can make you lose your present and there yourself. 

Jack Welsh: “Don't lose yourself on the way to the top’

Now what if we are to adopt a horizontal approach?  Horizontal approach means to focus on a parallel development of skills and achievements without obsessing with the future,  ie  ambition.  Which means we master the one thing that we are doing today and grow horizontally. When we have maximized this horizontal approach, automatically we will be taken to the next level and the next and the next, guaranteeing a successful though perhaps an unimaginable future. 

To put it simply, instead of focussing our efforts on how we can rise to reach our ambition, we must focus our energies on how to best acquire the current skill level and maximise it. Be assured that success will be guaranteed as a result of mastering your abilities and most importantly, one will be always in touch with your true self.

So today, I don't want to be concerned about how I will be a better filmmaker, I am only concerned about how I can learn and maximize my abilities and skills in my current stage of life.  If I concentrate on this It will make me grow to the next level automatically. 

So again what is Ambition?  Is it totally useless? To me it's nothing but an inspiration. 

Because as the saying is the only thing that is constant and assured in life is change. Maybe, one day my Ambition/Inspiration may change.  Having said that, mastering things that we are passionate about (and yes they can be multiple) on every stage (Horizontal Approach) will guarantee growth and the Ambition one has envisioned will be rewarded rather than achieved.

It's great to have dreams and vision of your future self, but allow it to change. Your passion is something that you can do everyday, enjoy it and excel day by day, thereby guaranteeing success and growth. If this is done, you will be surprised that your Ambition will be surpassed and your life will be unimaginable. 

Micheal Jordan “Matches are won in practice not on game day” 

Today is practice day, game day is yet to come.  Let's make today count. Tomorrow will shape itself.