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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.