Ambition

Ambition: A strong desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.

Man...it's been an interesting couple of weeks. I would have had this posted back in February, but I had a bit of an issue with this blog, where everything I changed, updated and wrote from early 2020 until my most current post this past January, got deleted.  I am more than grateful my files were able to be recovered.

I have been working on setting up a new  account to help promote my art and I am currently going through a frustrating issue with that now too...

The set backs, sometimes they seem to never end, sometimes it feels like one after another.

Yet regardless of it all, I am feeling even more ambitious than ever. I have such a deep drive to achieve certain things and I feel more determined than ever to push for where I am going.

I told this to my dad the other day and he said "Wow, I wish I had your ambition. I just don't have it in me anymore like you do."

Now, I will mention, my dad is 84...

Yet is it age that slows our ambition?

Is it age or is it our circumstance? Is it age or is it our environment? Is it age or is it the accumulation of things that have happened to us over our lifetime? Is it age or is it solely what we surround ourselves with? Is it age or is it what we feed our mind?

I don't think it's age.

Perhaps age may have something very small to do with it at times. Perhaps the older we get the more tired we become physically. Yet mentally what we feed our mind will show up in us physically as well. That's not age, that's environment, circumstance, accumulation of lifetime experiences. All things that can and will gladly steal away a strong ambition if you let it.

See, my dad is an artist. He has created great big paintings over the years, sold some in galleries, to hospitals and personally to a few buyers. Yet as time went on and he got his place out in the country he put his time into that, which was wonderful and creative and so good for him. He even created a wonderful large space to create more art. Yet years back, his art never sold like he planned. He never had access to the internet or Instagram during his prime years of creating. Yet now he does. My dad even has a patented product he made, yet at the prime of it the internet was just becoming a thing. We're talking over 20 years back....

Yet now he has access to it all. Yet his mind, although still very, very sharp is not really wrapped up in his art. Sadly, I see him more wrapped up in the news of the world then him putting his energy into his work or learning how to use these wonderful platforms that he has access to. My point is, I don't think it is my dad's age at all. He is still 100% capable of creating his art or learning the newest ways to reach art buyers, but he is filling his mind in a different way. Filling his mind with world news, that I hate to say, will only deplete any ambition inside the majority of one's heart and soul.

Now my 2 year old on the other hand...talk about ambition. Man...only if all of us could hang onto that throughout our entire life our world would be gleaming with love and warmth with extra stars and glitter on top. I mean, my little guy has got an entire world of toys to play with, which he looses himself in indeed. Yet I go to change out the garbage bag or press the button on the washing machine...and watch out. I swear, the absolute shrieks that can come out of him if he feels he is losing his chance to help out can be heard 10 blocks away. "Mom!!!! No!!!! Kota got it"!!!! My little boy has such a strong drive to do things himself he can't bear the thought of missing out. He can't bear the thought of someone taking away his opportunity to do something that he wants to do himself.

Yet somehow as we grow older, and (hopefully) begin to desire much more than putting a new bag in the garbage can or pressing the button on the washing machine, we let the world take away our opportunity for the desires we once had. We let people fill our heads with their expressions, comments and actions, sometimes leaving us feel we are either not good enough or not talented enough. We let clutter come into play from a lifetime of accumulation, whether it's physical clutter or mental clutter. We let so much into our mind, which in turn creates our environment, our circumstances...in turn deeply effecting our ambition.

Which can be good or bad...

See, letting in nature, like-minded people, positive books and creating a beautiful, calm, environment to live in can help keep ambition alive. Yet letting in negative stories, negative news or getting stuck in situations that feel overwhelming can quickly steal away ambition...especially if we stay there.

There are many who have come out on the other side thriving because of being surrounded in a bad environment or being surrounded with too much negativity. Yet those seem to be the few and far between. Their set backs and failures have pushed them into a deep ambition...continually working hard to change their circumstances for the better. It was the bad or negative that gave them the drive to move forward, hoping to get out of the situation they were in... keeping their ambition alive throughout to do so.

Basically, it all comes down to mindset, not age. 

We are all born with extremely high ambition. A drive so strong we learn entire languages in a year or so on our own just by listening. We get up off the floor and learn to walk all on our own. Ambition so strong our world comes to a complete halt if we don't get to press that button, feed the dog by ourselves, or in my little guy's case, put in a clean garbage bag. We are born with such strong desires. Then slowly the world steps in and starts to drop things upon us. It slowly starts to condition things out of us. That drive, that desire, that will we once had takes a step back...sometimes way, way back. We begin to compare ourselves to others, or our lifestyle to others...things that can deplete our energy and drive our ambition far away.

Yet we can reclaim it. We can change our mindset anytime.

I'm not saying it is easy, but nothing good comes easy.

My suggestion is just to start. Start by listening inside you, to your deepest dreams and desires, and then do one thing, no matter how small toward it. One thing today. Then one thing tomorrow. Get your mind thinking in that direction again. You will soon come to find that nothing was ever lost, it was just covered up within you. Covered up by a lifetime of outside conditioning.

We are born with ambition, and we will die with our ambition...it either used to our greatest desires or locked away deep inside.

It's your choice to keep your ambition alive while you're still here.