Most of our readers, and we are sure of this, have encountered ambitious individuals. Or they themselves are such. But if such a person meets in a company, then it is easy to identify him. He is confident in himself, stands “above others”, and has inflated demands on his destiny. It is precisely such individuals who achieve high results if, in addition to ambition, they use other characteristic character traits to achieve goals - perseverance, diligence, hard work, determination, etc. But let's find out how good it is to be ambitious, and what a person's low ambitions mean, why, for what reason this trait is formed.
What is ambition
According to the definition of psychologists, ambition is a certain level of ambition of a person striving to achieve his goals. The main desires of this type are to be the center of attention on a positive basis, to be held in high esteem and to be content with the respect of others. Such a person devotes his life to achieving both material and professional benefits by realizing his abilities in various fields corresponding to his interests.
We often say about such people: “He will achieve a lot! He needs everything from this life!” In cases where a person does not make a claim to this life and does not want to achieve much, he is considered a person with a low level of ambition.
And the one who sets ambitious goals for himself and is ready to “gnaw the earth” just to achieve the set goals is considered a person with inflated ambitions. Based on everything described, we can imagine an easy and quickly memorized interpretation of an ambitious person. This is the status that a person is aiming for - it can be overestimated or underestimated.
Concept of ambition
It’s not for nothing that I called ambitious people ambitious. These two concepts walk side by side in all explanatory dictionaries, including Wikipedia. The meaning of the word “ambition” is directly related to the sense of honor (ancient formulation). Ambitiousness means that a person is willing to take all necessary measures to achieve the desired goal. He strives for more than he has today. This may concern position in society, material wealth, or a reliable family support.
On the one hand, absolutely normal human desires. On the other hand, an ambitious person always brings discomfort with his behavior, manner of communication and attitude towards others. He is usually perceived as an arrogant person, capable of walking over heads or corpses in the name of his own “wants”. He loves to be in the center of events and the attention of others. They say about such a person that he will achieve a lot. And it often turns out that this is not far from the truth.
Ambition also comes with a minus sign. If a person does not try to use his intelligence, knowledge or abilities to achieve life goals, then he is called a person with low ambitions. This concept is often confused with good manners, modesty and emotional restraint. People with high ambitions, on the contrary, are characterized by boasting, fanfare and arrogance.
How are human ambitions realized?
The term “ambition” is treated differently in different nationalities. For example, since ancient times in Rus' modesty, calmness, poise, respect, and selflessness have been held in high esteem. And if someone says that he is ambitious, then he is treated negatively. Since the word is associated with pride, pride, arrogance. But as far as European culture is concerned, they hold the word ambition in high esteem. They perceive it as a desire to achieve their goals, implement plans, and be successful.
It is worth understanding that the word “ambition” itself is not translated entirely positively. In English, “ambition” means vanity, ambition, vanity. And for this reason, in European countries, in some cases, the attitude towards ambition is very ambiguous.
There is a fact - ambitious people are often distinguished by their arrogance, boastfulness, arrogance, and even deceitful character. They are arrogant, arrogant, cynical and can, as they say, go “over corpses” just to satisfy their ambitions.
A negative attitude towards an ambitious person is often due to the fact that because of his claims, others feel discomfort. For example, if a person wants to buy an expensive car, he has to save on the family budget. Of course, in such a situation such a person will be treated negatively.
It’s the same with a woman for whom the main thing is to climb the career ladder. She doesn’t want to have children, she spends a long time in the office and doesn’t think about what people are waiting for her at home. And it is quite natural that this state of affairs causes discomfort due to the career woman’s ambitions.
How to spot an ambitious person
Let's look at examples:
- An ambitious woman is ideal in everything. She is a diligent housewife who takes care of her husband, children, and home. Her place is clean, breakfast, lunch and dinner are prepared. This leaves time for yourself. A woman is engaged in self-development, reads a lot, takes care of her appearance and health.
- An ambitious man can also be seen from afar. He is dressed to the nines, plays sports, and leads a healthy lifestyle. Usually such men successfully build a career and achieve a lot in life.
Those who have ambitions do not boast in vain. They work hard to achieve their goals. This does not mean that they neglect the feelings and desires of others. They make every effort to make their dreams come true.
An ambitious person has self-esteem. He will never stoop to humiliating and insulting others.
What are the types of ambitions?
As we already know, ambitions can be overestimated or underestimated. But let's look at each of them separately.
- So, inflated ambitions - a person sets goals for himself, but for this he has neither financial, nor intellectual, nor time grounds. He acts arrogant and swaggering, boasts, but in reality he is nothing of himself. A simple and accessible example is girls from the outback who dream of becoming stage stars. No, no one is saying that there are no talented people in the province. But if we are talking about someone who has neither a voice, nor artistry, nor an attractive appearance, then what kind of fulfillment of desires in terms of “stardom” can we talk about?
- Low ambitions - a person sets himself small-scale, simple desires and does not pretend to anything more in this life. The question may concern the choice of the other half, career, material wealth.
- There is also a third type of ambition – adequate. Already by the name we understand that quality is inherent in an intelligent, intellectually developed, wise person. Such types are capable of achieving their goals, but they go towards them gradually, without disturbing the quality of life of those around them and taking into account the interests of loved ones. Ambitions can concern different areas of life. Therefore, psychologists also distinguish political, careerist, champion, imperial and other types of ambitions.
Experts also distinguish between different areas:
Professional. Those who decided to build an excellent career, achieve a high and well-paid position, and have as many people as possible subordinates have precisely this type of ambition. Quality is inherent to owners of holdings, offices, and enterprises. But if the road to realizing your desires was wrong, the wrong decisions were made, you can remain a banal workaholic and never achieve what you want. It is important to set priorities on time and correctly and abandon the secondary, unimportant.
Family. In this case, a person wants to find an ideal soul mate and build harmonious family relationships in which there will be no place for scandals and omissions. In his dreams, there is always a picture of a family in which there are children, where everyone is friends, communicates, is frank and honest with each other. Well, this is a normal and completely realizable desire. The main thing is not to overdo it with the ideal partner. If you demand from your spouse (wife) to conform to the ideal personality, conflicts and breakup are possible.
It is worth understanding that ideal people do not exist. And if your picture of the future is violated by the usual quarrel, omissions, refusal of children to obey and do everything their own way - you live in an illusory world. Look at yourself from the outside. Does your attitude towards others, your character traits and habits correspond to your dreams of an ideal family? It is unlikely that you also have shortcomings. The main thing is to find love and understanding, and everything else can be survived.
In the heat of building ideal family relationships, ambitious parents often force their children to live up to their ideals. The requirement to study better, to achieve success in languages, exact sciences and other subjects can lead to a child’s nervous breakdown and rebellion. At one point, he will refuse to do anything at all and, to prove his independence, will go to great lengths.
In order to at least get closer to your desires, you should learn to talk to your child, listen and hear his arguments. Connection, openness and trust are essential. This is the only way to find a common language. Imposing your ambitious family plans on everyone is stupid and counterproductive.
Financial. Well, we have many like-minded people on this issue. Who among us does not dream of improving our financial affairs? And make sure that you don’t need anything, don’t look for anything, don’t borrow in order to “plug” money holes in the family budget. But believe me, our problems have nothing to do with financial ambitions. There is a desire here to have lots and lots and lots of money. In this case, unlike normal people who want to live like a human being, everything is aimed at only one thing - to have wealth. In such cases, ambitious people do not think about others, they become greedy, stingy and pragmatic in everything.
Political. We can watch the activities of individuals with political ambitions every day on television. These are deputies, officials, political scientists, presidents, chancellors, prime ministers, etc. But it is worth understanding that such persons do not just aim to occupy some high position. They dream of ruling states and enjoying the authority of almost the entire planet. As a rule, future politicians have been interested in political talk shows, magazines, and newspapers since childhood. They begin their political “career” while still at school. They participate in the editorial board, publish wall newspapers, hold a post in the school parliament, participate in debate clubs, etc.
Is it good or bad?
In different languages, as well as cults, the word “ambition” has different characteristics. In Russian, ambitious people are called arrogant, proud and ambitious, encroaching on something. Ambitions are an excellent motivation, which allows you to confidently move towards your goal. Ambition becomes a virtue only if it is confirmed and justified. You should not be critical of a person who strives to achieve his goal by any means. It is important not to pay attention to what is happening around you and then you will definitely be able to achieve success in your studies or career.
Ambitions must be conscious, built on deadlines and actions, only then will they bring long-awaited success and not become a mirage in the desert. There are enough dreamers who represent a special category of people who are characterized by empty ambitions, usually they are simply called upstarts. But despite this, ambition has a number of advantages, because it forces every person to tune in to the wave of success and strive for it. Such people are looking for ways and opportunities for self-improvement and are not ready to just up and give up their idea. Finding a goal and a way to achieve it, a person does not pay attention to a number of obstacles that often arise on his way. Overcoming difficulties gives ambitious people special pleasure.
Realization of ambitions
Ambition in character motivates every individual to action. If they are not there, then you can lie on the couch and admire the successes of others. If there is ambition in a person’s character, then he sets goals for himself and does everything to get to them.
But it also happens that ambition is a negative character trait. We can talk about positivity if a person has reason to hope for the realization of his plans - education, personal growth, knowledge. If a person does not have the basis for forming and implementing plans, then ambitions are false. It's like a mirage in the desert, it builds on the sand and disappears just as well. To understand how this is, we suggest studying a specific example.
“This was in the late 80s. The two girls were close friends. Natalya and Zhanna were the same age, but they studied in different classes. So, Zhanna always studied well and dreamed of going to medical school. Natalya, on the contrary, was sickly, studied with C grades, but her plans also had an element of grandiosity. She loved languages and dreamed of entering the faculty of foreign languages or journalism.
Both graduated from school and began to prepare for admission. Zhanna studied non-stop, and Natalya didn’t seem to miss days of preparation. But then came the admission, and one managed to pass the exams and become a student, but the other did not. It’s just that Natasha’s plans were based on “mirages”. She did not have the appropriate knowledge and naturally failed the exams.
Years passed, one of the friends, as expected, graduated from university and began working as a doctor. And the second one got married and for a long time did not think about getting an education. Only after family troubles, left alone with the child, Natalya decided to try her luck again. She began to prepare to enter the university at the Faculty of Law.
She studied in the correspondence department, each time she had to pay extra for taking tests and exams. As a result, she still received a diploma. But why does she need it for someone who does not have clear, adequate ambitions to achieve success in the legal field? Surely many people guessed that Natasha hid the diploma in the chest of drawers and never thought about it again.”
We studied a banal, but very instructive story, Natasha seemed to have ambitions, but did not have the desire or determination to achieve results and work on them. They were false.
Is it possible to develop adequate ambition?
In order to take that very cherished step on the path to self-improvement, it is necessary to gradually develop adequate ambitions and provide all possible assistance in this:
- self-esteem. It is necessary to adequately assess the degree of suitability of your talents and level of ambition;
- confidence. You should be confident in yourself and your actions, but not overconfident;
- motivation. You should constantly motivate yourself, try to develop in the chosen direction to achieve your cherished goal;
- clear position. You should understand yourself and understand what you really want and try to find ways to realize your desires;
- ability to listen and hear. A person should definitely ask his family and friends how they evaluate his activities;
- setting goals. It is important not to stop there and always move forward confidently.
Is it possible to fight ambitions?
If a person’s ambitions interfere with his life or create discomfort for those around him, it makes sense to fight them. But there is one But! This is the same as in the case of an alcoholic or drug addict. It is impossible to fix a problem unless the person suffering from the “problem” wants it. If he has not admitted that his ambitions are harmful, then there is no point in doing anything.
In the case where there is agreement, you need to start by analyzing your actions and activities. It is important to identify positive and negative character traits. To do this, you should take a piece of blank paper and write down on it all the bad things that you notice about yourself. And every time fight the negative quality. Of course, it is impossible to improve immediately. But time is on your side - keep fighting and you will succeed.
- You need to learn to respond normally to criticism from those who truly treat you with respect and love. There is no need to see a catch, betrayal, deceit in everything. Only people who truly love you can tell the truth. And your ill-wishers, observing your baseless ambition, happily rub their hands.
- If you have a desire to realize your ambitions, pay attention to how adequate they are, whether they correspond to your internal and external potential. If yes, continue, and there is no need to fight it; if you don’t have the opportunity, refuse and don’t make people laugh. Communication with loved ones will help with this. Listen to their assessment of your activities and advice. It is not necessary to do everything, but it is still necessary to weigh the pros and cons of a particular task.
When ambitions are too high
If a person notices that his ambitions have gotten the better of him, he needs to learn to suppress them.
- You realized that you have inflated ambitions, let them be inside you.
- Take more time to think, meditate, acknowledge your own emotions and feelings.
- Love yourself. Then you will be less likely to look for love in someone, and you will stop controlling everyone.
- Decide what is of great value to you, understand that you don’t need to argue with someone about anything, realize your tasks and goals.
Now you know what ambition means and who an ambitious person is. As you can see, with a normal level of ambition, a person achieves considerable heights, however, inflated ambitions interfere with normal life activities and affect relationships with other people.
How ambitions arise
Most believe that ambition is an inherited quality. This opinion has a right to life, because it is not based on nothing. Notice who is the ambitious person? Often this is the son or daughter of successful people who have reached great heights. Or the offspring of talkers, braggarts, greedy people and stingy people who raised their children in the same way. But if you dig deeper, you cannot call ambition a hereditary trait.
Everything is formed during childhood and for this reason children are similar to their parents. It is adults who can instill in a child high, low, or adequate ambitions. For example, parents are dentists who understand that for a career as a dentist it is necessary to study well, graduate from medical school, and constantly improve. They teach the child hard work. From an early age he attends various clubs and sections, is involved in exact sciences, sports, etc.
In the case when the children in the family are not interested in anything, but only do what they dream of a successful career in some industry, nothing will be achieved. Their ambitions are too high. And finally, despite the fact that their beloved child does well at school, gets good grades, and attends sports clubs, the parents claim that he will not achieve anything. This is a perfect example of understated ambition. She is raised as a child by his parents - pessimists, whiners and losers. The saying “water does not flow under a lying stone” applies here more than ever!
Ambitions are often the product of unfounded admiration for the child’s actions. It happens like this - a child picks up a candy wrapper from the floor - and the whole family is simply delighted with a normal act. Then he was able to turn on the TV himself - “wow, what a great guy!” Then there are performances in kindergarten, school, and from each such moment the relatives lose consciousness, what an event! That is, ordinary actions cause a violent reaction, based on nothing. The baby gets used to easy successes and develops ambitions. With age, the child's aspirations grow in accordance with the growth of needs.
Fortunately, there are many exceptional moments when a child who grew up in a family with inadequate development of ambitions is able to achieve a lot. This especially happens to those who have constantly heard that they will not be able to achieve success. But here it’s not – “I can do it!” “Why am I worse than others!” He challenges society and proves that everything is achievable, the main thing is to fight against low ambitions. And go towards your intended goal without stopping and without doubting your abilities.
How to develop healthy ambitions
Of course, it is very convenient to accept the position of psychologists and agree that ambition is laid in early childhood, and now nothing can be corrected. If your problem is low aspirations (and this is very, very common today), and this does not allow you to reveal yourself at work, to realize yourself in your social and personal life, you can cultivate adequate ambitions on your own. Start listening to yourself - a sign of low ambition is not that you have no desire to achieve something, but that you give up without even taking up the task of bringing your goal to life. Try next time, when you feel inspired and energized by some goal that has appeared in your imagination, not to give up on it “because it is too difficult and unattainable,” but to think through a plan (or several options) for achieving it. Communication with ambitious people helps a lot if you use it correctly. Let such a person not be a reproach for you, who has achieved little so far, but a model of behavior. Allow yourself to be infected by this wonderful state, when the whole world does not yet belong to you, but you are confident in yourself and know that sooner or later you will conquer it. The development of ambition is facilitated by working on self-esteem, which we have already talked about. Set a goal for yourself to become a more ambitious person, and you will see how much richer and more interesting your life will become.
Modern ambitions – what they look like
Experienced psychology experts say that ambition today is the main way to achieve positive results in life. Ambitiousness has become a fashionable character trait, otherwise you “can’t survive” in our world. We kindly ask readers not to confuse the ambition of modern man with greed and cynicism.
Let's think, with such competition, a huge number of applicants for a good job and salary, is it possible to “survive” without ambition? No, perhaps somewhere on the outskirts of the country, with no prospects for the future. But as we already know, they must be healthy and adequate. And the formation of aspirations is influenced by such qualities as a person’s self-esteem, heredity, training and personal aspects.
- Self-esteem is very closely related to the aspirations of an individual. Those who have it too high have an inflated type of ambition. And with low self-esteem, you shouldn’t count on more than low claims. And of course, an adequate level of self-esteem is a healthy aspiration.
- Family. In some homes, the main word when raising a child is “should”! Hearing it from childhood, the child grows up to be someone who must meet the desires and expectations of adults.
- Personal factors - we are all divided into two types of people - introverts and extroverts. The first ones are closed, do not make contact and live in their own world. The latter, on the contrary, have a high level of communication, easily get to know and make friends with people. And of course, these qualities influence ambition. And what is noteworthy is that introverts often have inflated aspirations. And extroverts try to please everyone and everything and are not able to achieve much due to a low degree of ambition.
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How ambitions are formed and what influences it
Becoming ambitious as an adult is unlikely to happen. This quality is laid down in childhood. Although there are examples of how adults completely changed themselves, developed ambition, achieved goals, and became successful. But these are exceptions to the rule.
“Stay away from those who try to diminish your ambitions. Little people always do this, but the truly great ones make you believe that you too can become great.” Mark Twain.
The development of ambition in a child is influenced by 3 factors:
- Personality type. Who is a child by nature: an extrovert or an introvert? The first ones always strive to be visible. They vitally need communication, recognition from others, and new emotions. Such people always have ambitions. This is their character trait. In this regard, it is more difficult for introverts. They will prefer loneliness to a cheerful company. They will spend time reading a book instead of meeting with friends. Because of this, they have practically no ambitions.
- Self-esteem. Inflated self-esteem equals inflated ambitions. Such individuals are ready to do anything to get what they want. There is also the opposite situation. A person with low self-esteem has no ambitions at all.
- Example of parents. The atmosphere in which a child is raised has a great influence on his future. Let's say parents have achieved significant success in some area. Naturally, they will encourage the child to study well, get an education, and play sports. Parents who are pessimists and losers will raise their child to be the same as themselves.
So, it is almost impossible to form ambitions as an adult. A person is unlikely to be able to change his essence, character traits.
What are they? ↑
Ambitions can be classified as follows:
- Adequate and inadequate (overestimated).
- Healthy and destructive.
- Champion and careerist.
- Political and imperial, etc.
Adequate correspond to human capabilities, they are real. Therefore, they always bring a positive result, that is, satisfaction - a person fulfills his goal.
By setting impossible tasks, a person will not get the result he expected. These are exorbitant ambitions that cause a negative response in the public environment, and a negative perception of the very concept of ambition.
In everyday life, ambitions often manifest themselves in the following areas:- Professional activity - even if a career takeoff is not for you, professional ambitions will not hurt, since inertia is not welcomed in the modern way of life.
- Career growth – social and financial status worries everyone, which means ambition is necessary.
- Family life - arrogance can have a negative impact on it, so you should learn balance so that high ambitions do not interfere with family happiness and do not put pressure on your significant other.
- Raising children - parents often make the mistake of realizing personal ambitions in their children. This should not be done; it is better to instill in the heirs from childhood the desire for success and teach them how to achieve more.
What kind of person are you?
It is important to understand the meaning of the term and the word ambition and ambitious in relation to a person. After all, it is in real life that you can observe a person’s ambitions and understand what it is, who has such a quality and how to notice it in other people
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The most important period for the formation and development of aspirations, self-esteem and ambitions, of course, is the preschool period, as well as primary school age. The role of parents and teachers is important here, because if you support a child in his successes and endeavors, the positive experience will last a lifetime.
If you blame him for any manifestations of “himself,” then he will stop striving for anything. We can say that ambitious, purposeful people manifest themselves from a young age and it is extremely difficult not to notice this.
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We can identify the main characteristics of a person with high aspirations (the qualities presented below are more related to the term - professional ambitions):
- The ability to set yourself achievable, clear and realistic goals.
- Believe in your success.
- Demanding of yourself and others.
- The ability to flexibly adapt to changes without losing sight of your goal.
- “Inner fire” and a lot of energy.
- Constant development and improvement of both professional and personal qualities.
- The ability to clearly feel your boundaries and stand up for yourself.
- Positive thinking.
If you have found more than five of the qualities listed above, then we can assume that you have adequate self-esteem and healthy aspirations, which means that you are an ambitious person.
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In conclusion, it is worth saying that this quality is a double-edged sword.
It is important what significance ambition plays in the life of a particular person, because it can both stimulate him to activity and vice versa
