Here and now!
I’m not ambitious. I guess that does not make me popular but the fact is I’m not ambitious. I’m not at all guilty about this and I’m perfectly happy with the way I am. When I say I don’t have any ambitions, there is a chance of me being misunderstood as being wayward and listless. I can be very clear and organised. Being clear and organised is about the present whereas ambition is about the future. Lack of ambition is related to lack of desire to improve/grow. It is seen as a sign of incapability or being unadventurous. That’s unfortunately the popular belief.
I know it’s cool to say I’m ambitious. It’s inspiring to say ‘20 years back I had a dream and here I’m today’ or ‘my relentless efforts driven by my ambition made me achieve this’. I don’t know people who claim to be ambitious are really ambitious or just claim so because that’s a nice thing to say in our society. As far as I’m concerned, I have no ambition. I don’t know what and where I want to be after 10 years. While I don’t dream about the end result, I certainly enjoy the process. I don’t need the carrot of ambition.
Every want or desire is not the ambition. It is the ultimate state, the superior motive. The ambition is an uncertainty. What is certain is the process that we are on now which might lead to the destination, whether desired by you or not. I simply don’t understand the concept of having an ambition and working towards that. I see that’s a reverse appraoch. What’s natural is to do best with what you have and you’ll get what you deserve. I know I won’t come across as the most optimistic guy with this kind of thoughts.
Ambition is like religion. Some people badly need religion. Some people are very comfortable without it. Some people do need ambition to drive them. Some people don’t. You don’t have to do wonders only because you have an ambition to push you. Need not be. One can do well because he is dedicated, committed, truthful and honest, because that’s the right way, the only way. It’s very easy to live here and now. Living in the past or for the future is unnatural but common. I’m not a sanyasi. Living in a material world, I can’t live ‘here and now’ like the zen masters. But I try as much as I can. It makes me feel light and free. If you live ‘here and now’, you might even laugh at the term ‘ambition’. My idea is simple: live here and now, live happily.
I’ll leave you with this Zen story:
One day, while walking through the wilderness, a man encountered a vicious tiger. He ran for his life, and the tiger gave chase. The man came to the edge of a cliff, and the tiger was almost upon him. Having no choice, he held on to a vine with both hands and climbed down. Halfway down the cliff, the man looked up and saw the tiger at the top, baring its fangs. He looked down and saw another tiger at the bottom, waiting for his arrival and roaring at him. He was caught between the two. Two rats, one white and one black, showed up on the vine above him. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about, they started gnawing on the vine. He knew that as the rats kept gnawing, they would reach a point when the vine would no longer be able to support his weight. It would break and he would fall. He tried to shoo the rats away, but they kept coming back. At that moment, he noticed a strawberry growing on the face of the cliff, not far away from him. It looked plump and ripe. Holding onto the vine with one hand and reaching out with the other, he plucked it. With a tiger above, another below, and two rats continuing to gnaw on his vine, the man tasted the strawberry and found it absolutely delicious.
You can never have the past or the future; one is irretrievably gone and the other is yet to come. The present is here and now, and it is yours completely and unconditionally. No one can take it away from you, and you alone have the power to decide how to use it. Cheers!
My ambition in life is not to be ambitious
Is that all you could come up with?
Sri Sri Sri Vijayakrishna ji,
Pranams! Then what else you call a saint like you!!
I tend to agree that being ambitious is not the only prescription for happiness and success. Being ambitious we always tend to chase a mirage which may or may not fructify. By doing that, I hardly enjoy the present. I need to learn to enjoy the present more and not worry about ambitions.
But is it possible to live without ambitions. I am just imagining if I dont have any ambitions in life, will I ever move my arse!! A point to ponder..
It is nice to see Vijay understanding the ultimate truth so early in your life., some thing most of the people don’t do till they are about to die.
Being in the moment and having detached attachment towards things around you and yourself , will make anybody an ultimate winner in life. Of course, you should have willpower to let go some short term losses.
On ambition I have something different to say. Every human being has an ambition.If you ask a sage who is supposed to have renounced everything in this world, the ambition would be to realise God.Even in the above article , I can say that Vijay’s ambition is to live in the moment and be happy.
Venkat, so please start moving your arse with detached attachment.That should be your immediate ambition…………
Mr. Opinion,
To begin with, I like the name of this blog “Random Opinion ‘
However “ambition not being considered ambitious’ I am perplexed a bit here.
Well, let’s Penn only on ‘Is ambition a future tense or a present tense?”
We all love to live in the present, enjoy our life & do something purposeful. However, most of the people, especially in India are bounded by culture, religion, dogmas, cliché’s, superstitious beliefs, currencies, commodities etc . . .
Why ambition is about one’s future?
Before we start, let’s establish the core understanding of what is future . . .
Future – For me it is a state of mind, a time zone, yet to occur. A stage after present.It is a period after present & certainly not antonym of present.
This is the key here “Future is not the opposite of the present”
Having established, our dear future is not the enemy of our present.
Let’s go back to our school days (Past). My Guru (Physics laureate) has taught me “the future is just a half of the timeline. In special relativity the future is considered as absolute future or the future light cone. In physics, time is considered to be a fourth dimension. Physicists argue that space-time can be understood as a sort of stretchy fabric that can bend due to forces such as gravity. While a person can move backwards or forwards in the three spatial dimensions, many physicists argue you are only able to move forward in time. [7]
This means future is also positive . . .(Like present)
One must consider past, present & future & balance the 3 dimension to live a happy, productive & purposeful life in this space.
Time is always dependent on space.
Now coming back to ambition. It is certainly not future . . .
I also agree that it is not past/present.
It is a noun.
How we take ambition matters a lot in one’s own life. . .
For me to become (future state) an entrepreneur can be an ambition. Just because Prithvi to transform himself to be a entrepreneur in the near future can be a future tense. But most certainly, ambition is not about future.
It is just a catalyst for me . . .
Mr. Opinion, this is only my attitude on ‘ambition” . . .
Thanks for penning my favourite topic. Apologies if I have used any engineering jargon.
I’m now trying to find a simple average of the comments by Sridhar and Prithivi. The way I see it, to live happily is not really an ambition because you just simply do it, there’s no planning there. Like Osho says, don’t talk about love, be love. There is a difference between saying that I live happily now and I want to live happily after retirement.
And Prithivi! you win the argument (because I don’t fully understand those self-confessed Engineering jargons)
Ambition is a grandiose word. A dream is something even an unambitious person might have. Like becoming a celebrity of some kind, publishing a best-selling book, etc. Maybe you’ve dreams.