Are you ambitious?
Do you think Ambition is a dirty word?
Today I went to see a talk with Viv Groskop (at Words by the Water in Keswick, Cumbria). Viv is the author of How to own the room and Lift as you climb. And Viv endorsed by book, I’m forever grateful for that.
She opened her talk by asking the audience ‘Who is uncomfortable with ambition?’. The theatre was mostly ladies of a certain age, a few men made to come along with them, and me (it’s Cumbria, it’s just how it goes here).
No one put their hand up.
‘Interesting’ Viv offered ‘Usually we are uncomfortable with ambition’. A lady offered up ‘I’m too old to be uncomfortable with anything. I have my own version of ambition now. But it hasn’t always been like that.’ Another lady added ‘Yes, I was ambitious when I was younger but I was told that I couldn’t follow my ambition because women didn’t do what I wanted to do. So I’m not uncomfortable with ambition, I just had it taken away’.
And that started a brilliant conversation about our relationship with ambition. If we think we are worth it. The things that get in our way. The things that make us feel bad about following our ambitions.
And how ambition is not just about being bigger, better, bolder. Ambition is whatever you want to follow. It’s about having confidence and conviction to live life how you want to live life. And over come barriers that get in the way of that.
And how you are never too old to have ambitions.
And how we don’t have to think of ambition as a horrible thing. It’s a great thing to follow, and achieve. Otherwise, what else are we doing?
So that made me ponder my ambition. What is my ambition? It’s certainly nothing that is traditionally seen as a big ambition. It involves far more free time, working less and doing lovely things than a traditional sense of ambition might hold. But it is an ambition, a goal I’m working towards.
So the talk today made me rethink Ambition. That maybe we are all ambitious but in different ways.
I’d love to know what Ambition means to you?
eleanor