Grace Cheng (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer
Ambition is often considered one of the most valuable qualities a person can have. It inspires us to set goals, tackle challenges and envision a better life. Whether it is about building a successful career, earning financial security, mastering a skill or fulfilling a personal dream, ambition can give a sense of direction and meaning to a life. But ambition can also become a problem when life is reduced to only achieving success. Thus, finding a sweet spot between ambition and happiness is important.
Ambition is no enemy of happiness. Having a meaningful vision for life can actually help a person feel happy. Pursuing a goal can create motivation and confidence. And achieving a challenging goal can bring about a great sense of satisfaction. The issue arises when we constantly sacrifice for our ambitions. A person can become so determined to pursue the next promotion, higher salary or future success that they lose sight of appreciating what they have at hand.
The best approach is to identify your vision for your life, but then allow yourself some flexibility so you can also be open and happy with what you have. You might learn that happiness comes from the journey, not just the destination. You are the only one who can determine if ambition will increase your happiness or diminish it.
Modern society often promotes this imbalance. People are told they should work harder, do more and constantly better themselves. So-called success is sometimes used as a kind of destination where happiness is finally waiting for us. People may then think, “I will be happy when I get that job I want,” or “I will relax when I have earned enough money.” But when one goal is attained, another emerges. If we are always waiting for the next “achievement,” we may never feel happy.
But happiness does not mean throwing away ambition and doing nothing. It is possible to be happy and to grow, to achieve, to work hard. Happiness comes from other sources than external success. Relationships, health, meaningful experiences, creativity, rest and belonging are all just as essential as financial success. People who succeed in a professional sense but have no time to spend with friends or family or pursue active hobbies may eventually realize how much they have missed.
Given the complexity of people’s needs, there is no one-size-fits-all balance. Focusing on others rather than yourself and setting yourself apart from societal and cultural expectations can be one of the most significant ways to pursue a balanced existence. For example, becoming a business leader might be a worthwhile life goal for one person, while having a successful career that allows just enough time to enjoy one’s family might be a worthwhile life goal for another person. For both of them alike, there is no objective way to say one is better or worse than the other; you should listen to what is important to you, not to society. Otherwise, you might set yourself on an entirely pointless goal, simply because it’s something others say is worthy of your time, rather than something that you genuinely want.
Besides the need to be self-aware of this, there are other critical lessons to be learned if you are after balance. These include avoiding the oblivious-intentional trap, learning to relax, and knowing that life cannot and does not always stay in balance.
Ambitious people tend to set their sights far ahead, looking for the next target. They then risk being oblivious-intentional, meaning they are so focused on future achievements that they are blind to what is already happening. Thus, it is important to instead spend time on things that make you feel good in the present and enable you to pursue big achievements with focus, passion and energy.
Setting aside time for relaxation or simple thoughts is not a waste of time: I have learned in the course of my own life that leisure activities can provide emotional strength to keep striving for the goals we are determined to pursue. Ambition and happiness are not incompatible. Ambition gives you direction, happiness and a feeling of why you should appreciate traveling along your path. A healthy life sees the two in tandem. One can strive toward great goals without those goals becoming their primary identity.
We also must understand, however, that perfect balance is not always possible or necessary. For example, several times in my life, when I was preparing for professional exams, I had to sacrifice time in my personal life to study a lot. I have also had to set aside a lot of time for my job—starting a new career was demanding, and I believed the sacrifice of intense effort would be rewarded at a later time. Occasionally, you might have to disappear from your family for a short time to prepare for exams or focus on a career opportunity. Then, at the end of a round of intense efforts, you should have enough space.
Being successful is not merely reaching the greatest attainable position or accumulating the maximum possible number of achievements. It is about creating a life in which accomplishment and satisfaction support and bolster each other. Ambition should help people create a life they care about, not stop them from enjoying that life. When people learn to chase their dreams while appreciating the present, success becomes more than something they can reach for—it becomes something that they can genuinely enjoy.
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Grace has an accounting and finance background. She enjoys reading, writing, listening to music, watching movies and playing sports.