Ambition - A Passion That Motivates

Life is a competition - a daring adventure, and success usually comes to those who are ambitious. Ambition is a deep desire for achievement, and is propelled by an internal drive to fulfill one's dreams.

"Nothing can stop a man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goals; nothing on earth can help a man with the wrong attitude," says Thomas Jefferson.

Without ambition life is as insipid as a dish without salt and spices. No matter how intelligent and talented a person is, he will not be able to achieve much without ambition. Ambition gives us a purpose in life and helps to escape mediocrity. It envisages no short cuts. Sacrifices will have to be made and oppositions overcome. But nothing can compare with the joy of achieving one's goal.

There are people who are famous today because they did not abandon their ambitions. Nobody believed that a blind boy like David Hartman would become a doctor one day. He was discouraged by family and friends. His applications for admission to various medical colleges were ignored until Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia decided to give him a chance. The obstacles that seemed insurmountable were conquered through sheer determination and David completed his course successfully. Those who doubted a blind man's ability to complete such a rigorous course had to admit that David Hartman was 'supernormal.'

Bettina Bechgaard a 19 year old Ballet dancer who was to perform at the Sadler Wells Theatre in London, was knocked down by a car that left her with multiple fractures of her limbs and in a semi-comatose condition. But her fierce determination through grinding weeks of pain set her back on her dancing feet after a long period of recuperation. Through physiotherapy, psychotherapy and counseling, Bettina was back to dancing. Her strong ambition took control of her body and enabled her to perform pirouettes and other intricate steps. Nobody even noticed the hint of a wobble at times.

Poverty did not dampen the ambitions of many famous writers, who early in life had to struggle to survive, yet never succumbed to defeat. In his autobiography "Tell the Tale," Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells how he was desperate to write and be read. He kept scraps of paper in his pocket and kept writing through his penury and hardships. He even had to borrow a typewriter to type out his manuscripts. The world cheers at his rise to fame.

Stephen King the famous author was so poor that he had to borrow clothes for his wedding. He lived in a caravan with his wife on a hand-to-mouth existence. But poverty did not turn him away from his ambition of writing. Today he is one of the best known and richest of writers.

The story of J. K. Rowling's rise to fame is unbelievable. She had to type out the manuscript of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' which was 90,0000 words long, on an old type writer. Each time she was rejected, she had to type the manuscript all over again, and the rejections were many. To her good luck the daughter of the CEO of Bloomsbury read the story and loved it. Since then Rowling has never looked back.

It is said that "The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upwards through the night."

Qualities of an ambitious person:

- He is the architect and builder of his life.

- He is organized, focused and self-motivated.

- He is persistent. "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again."

- He keeps his ears and eyes open for new ideas.

- He makes the best of the opportunities that come his way to enhance his personal development and growth.

How to stay true to one's ambition.

- Believe in the tremendous potential in every human being.

- Believe in yourself and be spurred on by your desire to excel.

- Define your values and goals.

- Chalk out workable plans to achieve your dreams.

- Never quit.

Some people have bad ambitions. They have a one-track mind to achieve wealth and power no matter on whose feet they trample and how many lives they destroy. This is not ambition but greed.

Joseph Conrad says "All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upwards on the miseries and credulities of mankind."

Oprah Winfrey who is now a famous superstar with her own TV Network is an example of somebody with ambition and drive. She fought her way through racism, sexual abuse, and obesity to educate herself and work her way to the top.

"Never envisage defeat," says Norman Vincent Peale, "Giving up is defeat of a personality." He encourages people to live by the principle "I can if I think I can."

http://ezinearticles.com/?Ambiton---A-Passion-That-Motivates&id=9844753

The Price of Hard Work

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the task without realizing that the price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.

The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with drive and passion, it's possible. It is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on your goal and keep taking the next step towards achieving it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

Enjoy your sweat because it doesn't guarantee success, but without it you don't have a chance. I do not believe in excuses. I believe that it is the primary solution to life's problems. We all naturally want to become successful. It opens opportunities and shows the world that you are serious about being one of those peculiar human beings who use their talents at optimum level and do their very best. However, the moment we believe that success is determined by an a deep-seated level of ability as opposed to resilience, we will be vulnerable in the face of adversity.

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. Most of the time you will fail, but you will also occasionally succeed. Those occasional successes make it worthwhile. In a lot of ways, success is much harder than we thought it would be.You'd get there and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it's almost harder once you're successful because you've got to maintain it.

Writing is work. It takes a lot of contemplation, concentration, and sweat. People are charmed with the idea that somehow writing is easy and appears by benefit of some mystical external force. In reality, to be a writer, you have to sit down and write. It's work, and often it's hard work.

I would rather have one article a day of this sort; and these ten or twenty lines might readily represent a whole day's hard work in the way of concentrated, intense thinking and revision rather than sit and do nothing productive.

It's shown and proved that working hard pays off. So,build your goals, achieve them and replace them with new goals. Even if there were moments when we were disappointed and frustrated.

This talks about how our hardwork pays off. Difficult but possible.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Price-of-Hard-Work&id=9647364

How to Determine Your Life Purpose (By Virginia Adams)

In this day and age we hear a lot about finding and following our Life Purpose or Spiritual Calling. For most of us these ideas are preceded and followed by hundreds of question marks. We ask, "How do I know", "How will I know", "Who is going to tell me", "What if I don't hear it right", "What if I don't know how", "Who is going to show me", "What if my Mom (family and friends) disapprove", "Where does this knowledge come from" and on and on and on?

On several occasions I have boldly stated that my current path is a demonstration of me finally following my "Life Purpose". Even knowing and stating this, does not stop the question marks from flooding back in. "How do I know", "Who is going to support me financially as I skip down this lovely little path", "Who and What appointed me to this purpose", and my all-time favorite; "Is this just a "figmentation of my imagination" (thank you Herman "Disney's Mickey and the Beanstalk")?

Today all of these question marks are once again floating around my head which led me to look up the word PURPOSE in the thesaurus. This is what I found, so I will ask myself these questions:

• Drive? Yes for some inexplicable reason I am driven to continue down the path of Healer, even though it is not an easy task to do in this world. It can be ostracizing and at times in direct conflict with what this world perceives as normal.
• Determination? Yes I can't seem to stop. I am determined to touch as many people as I can with the message that they are worthy, created in perfection and love.
• Resolution? Even when this world, my finances and my relationships are in direct conflict, I continue to be resolved to skip down this path.
• Resolve? Ditto
• Persistence? Have you heard my message yet? Well then let me find another way to encourage you to see that you are created from the pristine white light of your creator. YOU ARE LOVE AND ARE LOVED!
• Perseverance? At times I would like to pull the covers up over my head and give up, but this purpose of mine keeps pulling them back down.
• Tenacity? I think it may just be my middle name, Virginia "Tena-city" Adams.
• Single-mindedness? One word and one word alone "Love". I have found that if I perceive that something or someone does not vibrate with what I am creating it is OK to let it go. Love or Fear? I choose Love.

Well, for today, I think I may have answered my question marks. Currently my "Life Purpose" path is to continue as a facilitator of Reconnective Healing and a messenger of love through my writing, art and public speaking.

But wait... isn't everything here in this four-dimensional space just a "Figmentation of My Imagination"? Isn't all of this just my story, my imaginative way to return to my innate magnificence, my innate perfection, my inner knowing of the oneness of love? YES! So for now I will imagine that my return to oneness is down this particular Life Purpose Path.

I make the assumption that if you clicked on this article you are currently seeking and searching for a deeper meaning to your life. Please indulge me as I push you with a few more questions. What are you currently creating? What will you allow yourself to imagine? How does it hold up to the above question marks? Finally, are you willing to say "Yes" to your inner guidance, to your inner knowing?

If today you find yourself questioning your purpose or your call to creation? May I suggest that you create a story with your imagination that shows you as Determined, Resolved, Persistent, with great Perseverance and Tenacity. Imagine a story where you have Single-mindedness towards a dream and a reason to exist. Even if it feels unreal or unattainable it is yours to dream, yours to create. Then get busy putting check marks by your question marks. Step by beautiful step you will be gliding down your Life Purpose path. You too have been called to Love, how will you express it in this time and space? I leave you with a simple truth of mine "THERE IS NO DEFINED STORY OF WHO I AM, IT IS MINE TO CREATE"

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Determine-Your-Life-Purpose&id=9745794

Why Your Why Is Important

"When your why is big enough, you will find your how."

Why Do You Do What You Do?

It is important to have a clear understanding of why you do things in life. Your understanding will make you realise how important is the reason behind your doing. You may find out that the thing that you're doing doesn't have a great reason or purpose behind it.

For instance, you may have a job that you consider to be decent. The thing is that you haven't really questioned why you are working in this job. Sure, it pays well, and you don't mind the work.

But there's something deep down telling you that this job is not who you are and that there is something greater for you to do. That is your why speaking to you. It is trying to get you to question whether there is a greater purpose for what you do.

Think about the important reasons for why you work other than earning money. Do you enjoy what you do? Are you passionate? Does it make a positive difference to people's lives? Are you able to enjoy more time outside of work with friends and family?

Having a greater purpose besides earning money to just 'survive' is so important. Once you are doing things with real purpose you will start enjoying your life and living it to the fullest. You will also be able to continue what you do in the long-run, even when the going gets tough.

Most people try to figure out how to do something, before they know why they are doing it. The 'how' comes naturally when the 'why' has been understood. Even if you don't know how something is done, as long as you know why you are doing it, you will eventually get there.

Your why is the motivation and the drive. It is the reason you won't give up and you will keep going until you achieve the things that you want.

A couple of years back, I remember when my parents didn't have the money to pay for a very expensive private college that they wanted me to attend. They didn't know at all how they would pay for it, all they knew is that I would have a better chance at graduating with high grades and a better career.

So they decided that I would attend the college. During my time at college, my parents started working harder, loans were taken and somehow we managed to pay for all the fees. If we didn't have a big why, I wouldn't have been able to continue with my studies.

Another example, is that of my Online Business that is solely run over the Internet, with the purpose to help people to earn a living through establishing their own online businesses.

The real reason for choosing this career path is that I am able to work under my own terms, choosing my own working hours and location. Furthermore is the opportunity I have of helping others to create their own online businesses and live a similar lifestyle as mine. This is my why. This is the reason why I enjoy it and continue to do it.

Remember to have clarity of your why with whatever it is that you do. It will make you realise the bigger purpose in your life, and it will be your motivation and drive.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Your-Why-Is-Important&id=9459745

Fail Your Way to Success - Donald Trump, Thomas Edison & Ellen DeGeneres ALL Agree!

As I have interviewed and researched serial entrepreneurs like Andy Kurtzig*, founder of JustAnswers(r), I have learned that they really do all share a couple of key personality traits. They also, typically, have immediate family members who had these same skills. We will evade the nurture or nature debate at this time as it is not pertinent how they attain these skills so much as it is important to understand that they have these traits. Let's look at some of the quotes that are some of my favorite and then analyse them to produce the top three traits possessed by successful people. And the final question is, "Can you attain these traits, or more so, do you already possess them?"

Here's my favorite quotes about success and failure...

1) "The phoenix must burn to emerge." - Janet Fitch

2) "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." - Donald J. Trump

3) "It's a blip, not a catastrophe." - Donald J. Trump

4) "Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" - John Wooden

5) "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - Robert F. Kennedy

6) "As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big." - Donald J. Trump

7) "It's failure that gives you the proper perspective on success." - Ellen DeGeneres

8) "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

Nobody in their right mind would take all these names from science, real estate, entertainment, wartime leader, and say they have anything in common. They would be incorrect. There are three common themes in all these statements which I agree completely with my conclusions after over a decade of interviewing and researching people with the three attributes of success.

What are these three attributes...

1) Drive. Even in the face of almost certain defeat the basketball player wants that last three points on the board. The wartime General will keep the city on early certain defeat. A TV entertainer like Ellen, etc. has the drive to get up in the morning and conduct some local show, or their first stand up in a low-brow bar and have the drive to push forward!

2) Optimism. As to the point of number "1" above. These leaders, or entertainers have to believe in their own minds that it will get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a train! It is also what I call the evolve part of the success formula. You are optimistic that you can fix, or evolve, your strategy and still be successful later.

3) Big Thinker. Again, without number "1" and number "2" this attribute can not exist. If you are going to build a ten unit apartment building, why not 500? If you can keep 50 people in the bar laughing, why not a million? If you can take one bridge, or city, why not all of them.

In short, my quote that I derive from all my research is "Fail, Evolve and move on!"

I read an article about failing recently by one of my LinkedIn(r) contacts who describes herself as "Deborah/Hodges" wrote an article titled, "When is it OK to fail?" In this article she describes what I call the evolve part of my quote above when she wrote this: "But was it a failure? On paper yes. For me personally however it was a huge success. I am still a little annoyed I didn't do more in terms of on the street canvassing... "

So, to succeed at any venture, on TV, as a leader or as a regular old person, you either have these traits from your childhood, or you spend the better part of a decade training yourself to possess these traits. I propose that every single person, no matter if they are mentally challenged, your local mechanic, Pizza shop owner, or ANYBODY on this planet, can succeed if they, "Fail, Evolve and move on", can succeed.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Fail-Your-Way-to-Success---Donald-Trump,-Thomas-Edison-and-Ellen-DeGeneres-ALL-Agree!&id=9406016

3 Reasons to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

... and 2 far better strategies to gauge your success.

When I was about eight, I came home from school one day and innocently asked my mother if I was “the best.” At school, we had been learning about comparative words like “better” and “best,” and I wondered if I was “the best” at something—maybe piano or reading or spelling? My wise mother calmly replied, “You’ll never be the best at anything. The world is a big place with millions of people; it’s impossible to be the best. Just do your best, and you’ll be fine.”

I was recently reminded of this conversation after reading about the tragic increase in suicide rates at highly competitive colleges.

(link is external)

 Smart, popular, accomplished young people from loving families are taking their own lives in unprecedented numbers, a pattern that some experts attribute to the drive to be the “best”—a tall if not impossible order when surrounded by other ambitious high-achievers. Suicide is highly complex and can never be attributed to a single cause, although depression 

(link is external)

is almost always an underlying factor. College mental health experts

(link is external)

 directly attribute much of modern young adults' malaise to consequences of social comparison—comparing one’s own accomplishments, looks, athletic prowess, school grades, or popularity—to their classmates and feeling that they’re coming up short, often with devastating consequences.

It’s not just college students who compare themselves to others. Most of us have compared ourselves to a friend, colleague, or even a celebrity, in a quest to figure out “how we’re doing.” It’s hard not to do when magazine articles celebrate "The Top 40 Under 40,” and yoga clothing catalogs showcase images of CEO moms who build orphanages in their spare time. It’s hard for our own lives to shine in comparison.

Can we wean ourselves from social comparison? It’s easier said than done. Some psychologists, most notably Leon Festinger

(link is external)

, believe that our desire to compare ourselves to others is a drive

(link is external)

—one almost as powerful as thirst or hunger. While comparisons can be informative, they’re almost always discouraging, because someone’s always going to end up on the bottom. My mother was not a social psychologist, but she knew that the desire to top others was an exercise in futility. A better way to figure out "How am I doing?” might be to compare ourselves today to where we were in the past, or to where we want to be in the future. This process, called temporal comparison

(link is external)

, is less well-known than Festinger’s social comparison theory, but there are good reasons why we should rely on temporal rather than social comparisons when taking stock of our lives.

Here are 3 reasons why using social comparisons is wrong:

1. Others’ so-called "perfection" is an illusion.
   The glorious vacations, the enviable professional accomplishments, the perfect children and spouses we see on our friends’ Facebook pages are just one sliver of their real lives. It’s the truth, but not the “whole truth and nothing but the truth.” A friend may proudly announce the publication of their new novel, but conceal the 12 rejections their manuscript received before being published. We may envy the smiling suntanned family we see on a tropical vacation, although we’re not privy to the fact that the 30 seconds of smiling came after three hours of squabbling and sniping. If we knew others’ whole truths, we might not feel so inadequate when comparing ourselves to their carefully crafted public images of "perfection."
2. Life isn’t fair.
   Some people are born with more advantages than others: A perfectly symmetrical face. Rapid-fire metabolism. Wealthy parents. Social connections that help them score a coveted job. Yet when we compare ourselves (unfavorably) to others, we often beat ourselves up for not trying hard enough. It’s much more likely that the differences we see reflect an uneven playing field—a reality that Americans just don’t like to accept
   (link is external)
   . Hard work just isn’t enough sometimes.
3. Comparisons turn friends and allies into rivals.
   In a perfect world, we would celebrate and genuinely enjoy the joys and accomplishments of others. Yet if we use others as a benchmark to evaluate ourselves, that creeping twinge of jealousy may undermine our ability to truly cherish the good things that come to others. Just remember: Over time, things may even out, and a friend’s success may enable him or her to support and make opportunities for others (including you).

Here are 2 ways temporal comparisons can help us:

1. They help to structure our goals.
   Thinking about where we’d like to be in the future and comparing that to where we are today helps us to structure our goals in sensible ways. Whether we’re an adult dreaming of a career change, or a college student hoping to go to medical school, having a clear idea of what we need to do, what we have been doing, and what’s got to change can help us to take realistic steps to reach our goals.
2. They help us to troubleshoot. 
   Temporal comparisons can be thought of us fact-finding missions, on which we find out facts about ourselves. Are you struggling with a two-mile run today, but sailed along a five-miler last week? If so, what’s changed in the past week? These "data" help us to isolate possible obstacles to doing the best job possible. Maybe we got a bad night’s sleep, or have too many work worries on our mind, or have an undiagnosed illness, and our run is suffering as a result. This fact-finding may help us to pinpoint problems that could have otherwise gone unnoticed, and may help us to remedy those obstacles that are preventing us from doing our "personal best.”

By focusing on self-improvement rather than one-upmanship, we’ll have a more realistic and insightful strategy for reaching our goals, and ideally, our friends and loved ones will be there to support us along the way.

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bouncing-back/201508/3-reasons-stop-comparing-yourself-others