The culture of our society makes ambition full of paradoxes, there are lines of thought that condemn it, others that exalt it, ambition is, in fact, one of the personality traits that many could not even define as something positive or negative. why we say ambition has two sides.
Ambition can be defined as an intense and passionate desire to achieve something difficult to achieve, especially wealth, power or fame, at least that is what is written in the dictionary, the very definition marks these two sides of ambition: on the one hand, it can motivate someone to achieve important and difficult goals, on the other hand , can be used to distort the search for worldly targets.
“You can’t stop ambition, even when you’ve reached the top” – Napoleon Bonaparte-
Now, there is also another way of looking at these two sides of ambition: when there is a lack or when there is excess, if something is missing and nothing is done, we are faced with a compliance that almost leads anyone to evolution and Growth, if there is anything left, we are faced with the lack of limits or the lack of scruples, we did what we wanted and we set ourselves more And now?
They often send us a message to encourage acceptance of reality as it is, inviting us not to try to change things and to resign ourselves to the facts that arise, this message can be very positive when it comes to situations that involve the impossibility of change. For example, when someone dies and we cannot accept death.
In other cases, however, the message can become very dangerous, usually when placed at an inopportune time, this type of message implies fear, authoritarianism of the sender, or both, the normal thing in man is to want to evolve, to always be ahead, not to accept everything that happens with resignation. What is happening is that there are lines of thought that incite obedience as a means of controlling us.
Fear, lack of self-confidence and excessive dependence on external power make us conformists, that is, it means giving up ambition. In other words, we end up with what life offers without trying to go further.
In contrast to conformism is greed. Being greedy is a characteristic that implies an uncontrollable desire mainly for success and wealth. The greedy one is like a bottomless sack, because you will never be satisfied with what you have already achieved or what you already have. You’ll always want more, for you dissatisfaction is eternal.
Greed is a toxic feeling. It takes the one who feels it to real hell and also trains those around him. Greed doesn’t stop at anything, because it’s an irreparable passion. This is typical of those who see things as “the end justifies the means. “the thing is simply to get more and more, no matter what needs to be done to achieve it.
A person is overwhelmed by greed because he feels needy, not that he is constantly in need, but he can feel that feeling for a while, and any lack a person feels is like unbearable pain, she basically thinks that if she gets more and more something she wants, at some point that void will finally fill up.
So far we see that ambition has two sides: one when ambition is lacking and there is conformism and another when there is ambition and greed, but there are also other characteristics that differentiate these two aspects, depending on the reasons that feed it. how it is managed and the purposes it has.
Ambition is made of the same material that big dreams are made of, it is a huge force that leads us to make decisions and venture down difficult paths, to achieve something we so desire, in this sense, ambition can be a great virtue, because it takes people out of their comfort zone and always demands a little more of themselves , hence the great conquests of life are born.
We can also say that ambition has two aspects when it comes to constructive goals in the face of obsessive and selfish goals, in both cases it is necessary to have a life force that pushes the person forward, although, nevertheless, there is an ambition that favors the person towards reasonable goals, there are people who only want to accumulate to exalt and nurture their own narcissism.
It is not good to promote lack of ambition and conformist attitudes, because this only increases insecurities and devalues efforts to be better and better; however, it is also necessary to know the limit of the desire to obtain more and more. is to learn to handle these two sides that has ambition. Although the differences are subtle, the consequences are great.