Are you ambitious in life?
For the most part of my adult life, I have branded myself as a non-ambitious person.
During college placements, I was not excited to get the best job.
Post that, I kept choosing early startups (low pay & hustle) instead of chasing Big techs (high pay & status).
I rarely craved materialistic things. My most expensive physical asset is my mattress 😀
Even now, I hardly aspire for a rich, world-class lifestyle.
But the fact of being un-ambitious kept bothering me. It sounds like you don’t want much from life. Plus sadly in most places, it’s casually assumed as some kind of failure.
However, in the past few years, once I have started writing and putting things in perspective, my thoughts have changed.
Ambition is defined as “a strong, deep desire to succeed and achieve high goals.”
The key thing is the “goals”. Goals are different for different people. It could be money, fame and professional success.
For me, they are peace of mind, time (to do what I want) and peak health.
And I realised, I have been serious about them for a long time with a strong, deep desire to achieve them.
My habits are modeled around them. My surroundings are optimized for them. I track them actively. It is also demonstrated by things that I write (work-life balance, investing in self, 4-am friend, Vipassana)
I gain true happiness when I get close to them.
So now I know that I am ambitious. Just on different things. 🙂