Ambition

Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” is playing on Spotify. The highway begins to fade as I drift into my thoughts and the steering wheel becomes an extension of my arm. The car nearly drives itself.

Ambition. Few traits are as powerful to drive change, both in one’s own life and in the world around us. Yet, even fewer traits have the same level of dichotomy: you either have it or you don’t.

That doesn’t mean ambition can’t be learned though, or even found within oneself. But let’s get one thing straight: if you still have to ask “why” you’re grinding, you’ve already lost to the person who doesn’t have to. Catch that. The competition is perfectly comfortable grinding harder than you, for as long as you feel the need to ask why. Don’t ask why.

Truly ambitious people don’t have to remind themselves why they do what they do. They already know.

How does a person get to this level of autopilot for their mindset? The answer to that question is found through as many different schools of thought as there are people asking.

My two cents? Practice. Practice everything, and every part of it, without any self judgment. None.

I didn’t expect to win (quit smoking) the first number of times, only to get further than I had before. I wasn’t even stressed about getting to the finish line when I started. My attempts to quit smoking were successful, eventually, and I learned something new every single time I failed. Whether it was realizing that my worst time was right after I woke up in the morning (cravings), or that I couldn’t drink socially until the habit had been gone for at least multiple months, I was always learning.

Stay curious (previous article I wrote) and ask what tweaks can be made, if any. Sometimes there isn’t a change that can be acted on and so all that’s left is to practice… again.

This is often where most people stop, and it’s why they fail.

Back up for a moment to “without any self-judgment.” Every piece of mental energy person spent in self-judgment is energy not spent acting on the goal.

Practice not caring what happens either way. This is the best way to keep getting in reps without exhausting yourself. Subtract yourself from the situation, emotionally, and watch your results skyrocket.