Not turned on by the prospects of earning millions (other than thinking not worrying about money would be nice)… or being on TV, and making headlines?
You’re not broken, or destined for “mediocrity”.
You know, I think our society has a very warped relationship with the idea of ambition.
The only form of ambition it glorifies is one that concerns (1) money, (2) worldly status, and (3) the individual.
That has many people who DO seek ambition ending up lonely, feeling empty and burnt out, with broken homes… and at worst, do harm to the communities around them.
So let’s look at how much more multidimensional the ambition can be.
One form of ambition is RELATIONAL.
How rich are you in relationships? Yeah, a lot of people know you, but how many people know you?
How much closeness do you enjoy, and with how many people?
A relationally ambitious person doesn’t stop at transactional and surface relationships. They invest in depth and intimacy. They know how, they keep learning how to be even better at it, and they reap the rewards.
Another form of ambition is CREATIVE.
We are all creative — even if your thing isn’t what is conventionally considered “art”.
A creatively ambitious person makes stuff as a response to their own aliveness, vs. to please an audience, or to fulfill the demands of capitalism.
How much of your time do you spend making stuff, just for the fun of it, just because you’re responding to an impulse inside of you? (There are enormously “successful” “artists” who haven’t created for the fun of it in a loooong time. They haven’t been creatively ambitious because they’ve been too busy feeding the “success machine.”)
Another form of ambition is DOMESTIC.
There are people for whom a lovingly-tended, beautiful and happy home is the ultimate and highest form of wealth. My mom is such a person.
Home-making isn’t something the patriarchy “forced” her to do. It is a sacred vocation that makes her come alive more than anything else, and this is true for many people — of all genders.
For a domestically ambitious person, a home is their church, their workplace AND playspace, their exhibit, and their sanctuary.
Another form of ambition is SPIRITUAL.
Elon Musk might have won the “worldly ambition” game.
But a monk you’ve never heard of who’s been silently meditating in a cave in the Himalayas for the past 15 years — and finds the ultimate meaning and fulfillment in that — takes the cake when it comes to spiritual ambition.
Spiritual ambition seeks communion with the transcendent, the divine.
Another form of ambition is SERVICE.
People who seek to help others and drive change in the world because they derive meaning and fulfillment in that, in and of itself, regardless of what comes back to them, are ambitious in terms of service.That’s pretty self-explanatory, right?
The last form of ambition is the ambition for SPACIOUSNESS.
There are people — and cultures, even — that find the highest fulfillment in… well, not doing a whole lot.
They do NOT see the validation of identity or purpose in WORK.
Dolce far niente. Leisureliness. Insouciance. The space to wonder, wander, dream, nap, and simply BE.
***An important note I want to make is that (1) I literally just thought of these, so this is not some kind of absolute or exhaustive list (feel free to think of your own list!) and (2) these are, obviously, NOT mutually exclusive.It’s not like you have to choose between the binaries of “worldly” vs “spiritual”…
… though, in terms of the constraints of 3D space and time, we sometimes have to make tradeoffs. (For example, you can’t paint AND build refugee camps at the exact same time!)
I believe that each of us has every single types of ambition — in different amounts — inside of us.
And we are called to make choices that best express and fulfill our inner ambitions, even with the aforementioned 3D constraints.
I share this with the hope that it gives you a sense of relief and validation that your desires and yearnings matter and are worth pursuing…… even if they don’t conform to individualistic and capitalistic ideals.