Are Ambition and Gratitude Mutually Exclusive?

[...] Original post by John Wesley [...]

I think we can have both at the same time. We are grateful for what we have got, and we are hungry because we know that our potential doesn’t stop here.

Looking at the past, I will be grateful to see how far I’ve walked. There are many victories I should be grateful for.

Looking at the future, I will be hungry because I know that there are still more than this. I’m grateful, but this is not the end of the story.

So in the present I have both: I’m grateful but I’m also still hungry.

Feeling gratitude for the past and hunger for the future is an interesting way to think about it. This is something that didn’t occur to me originally. I was focused entirely on the present moment.

It makes a lot sense. We might as well be grateful for the past, because there is no way to change it, and hungry for a better future, because a future without hope is depressing.

Attract Wealth and Prosperity Through Gratitude…

It does wonders to wish all those around you health, happiness, peace, promotion, wealth and all the blessings that life has to offer. As you do this you will at the same time reap these same blessings upon yourself. Remember that it is a universal law…

In my experience, growth and gratitude go hand in hand. Every period of growth in my life has occurred while I was in a mindset to really be proud of where I was versus where I had come from, and how I had gotten there. It’s like a momentum has been built and I move forward effortlessly.

When I’m unhappy with what I have, what I am doing, and covet what others have accomplished, I get little to nothing done. Everything seems to require supreme effort and I often just want to “give up.”

Ambition may be a loaded word – In my experience, personal development / “moving forward” only really begins to happen when I’m in a pretty good state of mind and grateful for where I am and what I have.

To add to Donald’s summation, I would say that gratitude can act as a balance to ‘ambition’. Ambition or wanting seems to be the natural state of things. The media encourages it. However, ambition for ambition’s sake is not conducive to positive well-being. Gratitude by it’s very nature contains an element of humility. And as such acts as a check against rampant ambition. It channels the ambitious drive to productive uses.

My friend sent me an email with this link inside, telling me that the author was reporting one my comment.

It was a great feeling, thanks John.

To me, “getting there” is more related to what I have to do in order to live the life I have (and want) to live. I have the conviction that each of us can (and have to) achieve huge things. By that I’m not speaking about getting rich or famous. I’m personally motivated by the things I want to create and share with the world. To me, that’s what “getting there” refers to. To succeed we have to bravely overcome our fears and listen to that extremely powerful thing inside of us that knows what to do.

Frank,

Thank you for contributing. Discussions are the best part of the site, so comments are very valuable.

I agree with what Donald, SweetTrend, and Xdroot have said about balance between gratitude and ambition.

They also mentioned a different sort of ambition that focuses on helping people rather than selfishness.

This is something I really wasn’t thinking of before. I was caught in the all or nothing mindset.

Having ambition to create or provide value to others is a powerful motivator. When I feel that way I’m the happiest.

Why either/or? Why not both?

I am thankful in every moment. Yet, every day I engage in activities that are moving me towards my goals. In the activities I am thankful. For example, one of my goals is to generate half million page views a month by the end of this year. While I write, comment, link, and communicate with other bloggers I am grateful. Grateful for the opportunity and courage to do it, and grateful for the connections. All while moving ambitiously towards my goal.

In Spirit,
Nneka

Vishvas,

That is definitely something to consider. Life is indeed a problematic affair.

[...] John Wesley presents Are Ambition and Gratitude Mutually Exclusive? posted at Pick the Brain. [...]

[...] John Wesley presents Are Ambition and Gratitude Mutually Exclusive? posted at Pick the Brain. [...]

I think you need to think more creatively on this. I recently purcahsed the Walt Disney Imagineers’ book on thinking creatively, let’s see how much I learned…

Ok, so you’re given us a choice between ambition and gratitude. Here’s the question:

Q: Do you want to be ambitious all the time, grateful all the time, or both, but each half the time?

Here’s my answer:

A: Why can’t it be both all the time?

I believe you can feel varying degrees of both at the same time, but that one always dominates the other. You can never feel both equally in the same instant. Ambition is driven by hunger, while gratefulness is driven by feeling full. They are opposites in that sense.

[...] encounter them, while unlucky people do not. Wiseman performed a test in which he asked both fortunate and unfortunate people to search through a newspaper and find out how many photographs were [...]

Being ambitions and being grateful are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They can actually support and compliment each other.

I’ve seen the effects that gratitude has had on my life, reflected in my friendships and my children and, similarly, I have seen how feelings of inadequacy and ingratitude have had a weakening impact on my life.

I therefore strive to feel gratitude through prayer and meditation. Some mornings I wake up and meditate on gratitude. I actually have the ambition to generate deep feelings of gratitude. If I can reach those emotions then I try to hold them and reflect on them and use them to make decisions. If I can’t get that deep feeling of gratitude then I aspire to it and pursue that feeling throughout my day. So in that way my ambition to feeling gratitude propels me forward.

Similarly, you can feel gratitude for your ambitions, your passions, your desires. There’s nothing wrong with that. That is the nectar of youth and we can be grateful for it’s sweetness.

Aw, this is a really quality site.

[...] life, we create a narcissistic outlook. We focus excessively on our sense of self and ego. When we offer gratitude for small things in life, it helps us feel a broader identity and awareness; our consciousness [...]