“Ambition” has always been a word that has lingered in the shadows throughout my career, but lately, I feel as if I have been invited to shine a light on it, and question what it could look like in the forefront.
Truthfully, “ambition” hasn’t always sat with me well. There are times when I hear the word and I want to sigh, cry, or maybe do both at the same time. Ambition signaled hard work, sacrifice, and grinding myself into something unrecognizable to me.
It wasn’t always this way. There was a space in time when ambition felt good to me. It felt like a badge of honor, proof of my competency, a sign that I was a go-getter.
But, as I drifted further away from the core of myself, and further from my dreams in service to the dreams of others and the demands of capitalism, ambition became synonymous with “bull shit” for me.
Am I alone?
As I travel down the path to becoming a Leadership and Executive coach, I am confronting how the word “ambition” has evolved for me. I can see clearly where things took a left, and I had a wild thought that I wanted to share with y’all today: Can we redefine “ambition” on our own terms?
I have written a lot about defining happiness and success on your own terms. But what about ambition? What if we challenge ourselves to redefine what ambition means to us and how, when, and where we apply it to our lives and situation?
I’ll leave you with a question: where would you start?
