The importance of ambition?

James · Jun 16, 2009

Having just realised that many of my friends don't have any particular ambition, which came as quite a shock, I've been pondering this question quite a bit the past few days.

My initial reaction was that a life without ambition seems somewhat pointless. If all you live for is eating, sleeping and the occasional holiday then... well... erm?

Given that the crowd here is (presumably) a little bit ambitious, I would be very interested in hearing your opinions:

Is having a life goal a prerequisite for happiness and fulfilment? Or is it a threat to happiness?

Is achieving an ambition worse than not achieving it? (i.e. what do you do next?)

Why do people without ambitions seem the happiest? Can one remove one's ambitions from one's own head!?

Someone pointed me to this brilliant Alan Watts recording (found on Paul H's blog): Harwood Leon Alan Watts - SEM, distributed computing, agile programming

Food for thought!

Skinner · Jun 16, 2009

The problem is peoples ambitions often exceed their skills/funds/abilities and reply on dumb luck (lottery win), thus they can never be achieved and lead to misery.

If your goals are realistic then chase em, if they rely on luck your in for had knocks.

I set a stack of goals in the late 90s and achieved them all.

My current goal was due to be completed by the first day of the 2012 olympics, I'm almost done now, so a few years early, so either I need better goals or my skills exceed them, I think the former

charlie · Jun 16, 2009

Skinner said:
My current goal was due to be completed by the first day of the 2012 olympics, I'm almost done now, so a few years early, so either I need better goals or my skills exceed them, I think the former

can we ask what it was - and celebrate your success together?

tifosi · Jun 16, 2009

It's funny really. I'm in the process of writing a new business plan for the gits at the bank. For a business I sort of fell into it's got surprisingly complex.

I don't know whether that's due to ambition or bloody-minded determination. Is there much of a difference?

Is having a life goal a prerequisite for happiness and fulfilment? Or is it a threat to happiness?

Both, depends if you forget whether you have a life or not.

Is achieving an ambition worse than not achieving it? (i.e. what do you do next?)

Depends on whether you don't mind falling and getting up. An always have concurrent ambitions. Eggs, basket and all that.

Why do people without ambitions seem the happiest? Can one remove one's ambitions from one's own head!?

Dunno, and No, but you can force them into others given a big enough hammer.

S

SF · Jun 16, 2009

I would have more ambitions if you went ahead and transferred all your names to me James

retired_member26 · Jun 16, 2009

James said:
Having just realised that many of my friends don't have any particular ambition, which came as quite a shock, I've been pondering this question quite a bit the past few days.

My initial reaction was that a life without ambition seems somewhat pointless. If all you live for is eating, sleeping and the occasional holiday then... well... erm?

Given that the crowd here is (presumably) a little bit ambitious, I would be very interested in hearing your opinions:

Is having a life goal a prerequisite for happiness and fulfilment? Or is it a threat to happiness?

Is achieving an ambition worse than not achieving it? (i.e. what do you do next?)

Why do people without ambitions seem the happiest? Can one remove one's ambitions from one's own head!?

Someone pointed me to this brilliant Alan Watts recording (found on Paul H's blog): Harwood Leon Alan Watts - SEM, distributed computing, agile programming

Food for thought!