Ambition

Thomas Jefferson put it nicely: “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

I know it’s a lot about attitude, as I’ve said before. And you have to have motivation to fuel your ambition. I have goals and dreams. A lot of them are things I would probably have to do in my “free time” in addition to a regular full-time job. It’s the ones that flit about in my head and won’t stop haunting me that make me stop and say: “I haven’t tried yet, and certainly not hard enough, to do some of these for a living.”

And then I get excuses like: “Well, I already have loans and rent and bills to pay each month, so I don’t have time in the meantime to try and get fill-in-the-blank started”. But honestly, it’s the Summer, and, I have no excuse for not using my Summer to the fullest of my advantage. I have to remember I can’t do everything in one day, but I can keep taking small steps and making persistent choices and being very aware of changes along the way. I can do this over the course of a few years if necessary. Whatever it is, mind you.

I do care a lot about a wide variety of things. Music always comes to my mind first and foremost. And then, more realistically, or rather something that has already been solidly lucrative (ish) for me, is language- French in specific, but I want to study Spanish more and maybe even other languages. And writing. There’s always writing. Ohh, and health! I love holistic living and eating well and the mind-body-spirit connection. I think that’s all I’ll say for now (I’m even interested in photography, travel, and cooking, but I know those are better left for other experts to pursue as careers).

My point today is that I have not been as ambitious as I’d like, but at the same time, I know my excuses. And I am dealing with my father’s cancer and the unknown factor of how long he’ll be around. So maybe I can make connection another ambition of mine. There are small goals I have related to my relationship with him. Juicing veggies and fruits is one of them. Conducting sorts of interviews is another, and walking. These are small “goals” I can accomplish in connecting with him. I also want to see if he himself wants to blog or anything like that.

Just writing this rambling post has made me feel better. I need to slow down, breathe, and probably even just clearly writing out some different areas of ambition will help me organize, prioritize, and see what could logically come of making big leaps (or small steps) in a given direction.

And that direction doesn’t have to be moving against the grain. It can be in addition to, or weaving its way around my life.

What are your thoughts on ambition? How much do you have? Does it leave you with a refreshed and go-getter feeling, or does it make you feel unsuccessful? Thanks for reading.