From Dr. V's little book (Life's Path: Some Trail Notes) comes this relevant nugget of wisdom in a section called "Ambition and Happiness":
Viewed in one way, ambition is a good thing, and its absence in people, especially in the young, a defect. Without ambition, there can be no realization of one’s potential. Happiness is connected with the latter. We are happy when we are active in pursuit of choice-worthy goals that we in some measure attain. And yet, there is no happiness without contentment, which requires the curtailing of ambition. There is thus a tension between two components of happiness. It is a tension between happiness as self-actualization and happiness as contentment.
To actualize oneself, one must strive. One strives for what one doesn’t have. Striving is predicated upon felt lack. But one who lacks what he desires is not content, not at peace, and so is unhappy in one sense of the term. Not only will he not get what he wants, he will fail to appreciate what he has.
To be happy, one must strive for, and in some measure attain, choice-worthy ends. That requires ambition. But the attaining is not enough; one must rest in and enjoy what one has attained. That requires the curtailing of ambition.
And some of us lean more toward ambition, thus denying ourselves the settled feeling of true happiness and satisfaction, while others of us lean more toward contentment, thus denying ourselves the feeling of true and meaningful achievement/accomplishment. It's a trade-off, not to mention a basic difference in orientation.
I am trying to learn how to curtail ambition--which is much easier said than done. I wonder if perhaps I am the type of person who just runs on ambition and will never be truly content. Ambition can be helpful in career advancement, but when the time comes to hang up your hat, I have a feeling it is going to be like a millstone around my neck. I'm supposed to strive toward my ambitions now, but in a little over a decade I'm suddenly supposed to downshift and find contentment without all that? I'll let you know how that goes.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought much about your ambitiousness. Maybe I've been incurious, or maybe I thought your original ambitions had to do with moving back to the States to teach. When you had put those US-related thoughts aside, I guess I'd taken that to be the putting-aside of your ambitions. It should have occurred to me that ambitions can take other shapes. Sorry. Or as the Canucks say, sore-y.
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