Where does ambition lead to?
Last night, I was walking with one of my closest friends along the swimming pool in the society where I live. One of the many walks that we regularly take to discuss things that matter to us. A few things happening over the last few days and, particularly, a conversation with my partner made me realize lately how much I’ve started thinking about being productive/effective and how little attention I end up giving to developing my humanity. If you sit down to think about it, there are SO MANY people who play a pivotal role in shaping any human being at different points of life. Some of them have stayed with us right from the moment that we were born to who we are now. We ended up meeting many others as we grew up. Some of them were meant to be a fleeting part of our lives. A few of them are there with us, even today.
The one thing that you will not find lacking during our conversations is passion. The subject of our conversation was:
“Who are we doing everything we are doing for?”
The only way that I could think about answering this question was by thinking about the moments that were meaningful to me. The moments I recall the most. The stories I tell most often and the stories I would like to tell in the future. And the single common factor in all those moments was the people who were present with me during those moments. People who I cared about and who cared about me.
Now, I have come to fully embrace my introverted self and I spend most of my days in my room by myself as I find it to be extremely peaceful. And many of the things that I find joy in, on a regular basis, are usually done alone. But I know that I really enjoy being in the right company as long as it happens at an appropriate frequency and this is the part that I wanted to explore more. Who are those people I want to be around? Who are those people who give me joy? Am I prioritizing them enough? If not, what am I prioritizing and why?
The answer that kept coming was a combination of my family, close friends, my partner, and a community that I feel I belong to, a community whom I can serve without any expectations of any monetary benefits. To this, a follow-up question that my friend raised was the fact that prioritizing this aspect of our lives would mean that we’ll have to likely compromise on personal growth as we are ambitious people.
But, how much do we need to grow? At what pace? And to what end? Given our personalities, personal growth is always going to remain a focus in our lives and we’re always going to make time for it. The question is not whether we want to grow or not. There is no doubt about that. The question is, “how fast do we need to grow and to achieve what?”.
And why is work considered the only outlet for ambitious people? Why can’t one be an ambitious partner? An ambitious friend? An ambitious brother or son or community member? Why not?
This post was originally published on January 15, 2023, here.
