When the weight of worry manages to shake you, ambition can quickly become fleeting. Drive, dedication, and an ever-zealous attitude of self-improvement are often displaced by “coping” when in actual fact, just getting by is actually setting yourself behind. Playing catchup from your own shadow of gloom and general negativity is a game that you have to stop playing to win, but far too often we’re so caught up in the blur of what was, should be or could be that we fail to realize we’re becoming our own worst enemy. Adversity faced is overcome, helping you grow from strength to strength, but fighting yourself is a losing battle that’ll suck your ambition and energy dry. In the face of uncertainty and a lack of self-drive, there is, fortunately, salvation, and it all begins with recognition.
Step One – Recognition
Your ambition isn’t gone. Success, passion, and personal power are never lost but rather hidden beneath a veil of worry until we stop and recognize that we’re actually just hiding from ourselves. There’s nothing in your way, but a barrage of unexpected events, most of which are largely outside of your control, can lull one into a sense of desperate normality. A place where normal is a journey of making ends meet while seemingly avoiding pitfalls before they happen. To make things worse, we convince ourselves that our aspirations need to shrink which in turn stifles our ambition. Chasing dreams is replaced with running away from fears. Whether these fears are tangible, social, physiological, or even real or not is of no importance to recognizing and realizing that you’re in control and are currently holding back your own potential.
The “Real” You Is Very Much Alive
Most of us have a point in our lives that we can look back to reflecting a vision of ourselves that was brimming with ambition. Unfortunately, most of us have been knocked down so many times since then that we anticipate the fall before it’s even happened. The anticipation of failure leaves no place for personal growth, acting on inspiration, and allowing our ambition to drive us. Instead, we let shocking stories and experiences of racial and sexual discrimination intimidate us. Uncertainty within the job market, health scares, and narrowing conventional opportunities overwhelm the mind and make many of us think that our ambition needs to scale down instead of ramping up. Guess what? None of those factors is your fault, but you can do something about it.
Rely On Adaptability & Change
The world is a vastly different place from what it was twenty years ago. Some may say that the crisis thrown upon the world closed many doors, whereas, in reality, an infinitude of possibility has been unleashed on the world. Yes, things are more uncertain now than ever, but a totally new landscape also means that there is ample room for your dreams to take shape. We may no longer be able to all rely on the relatively straight, stable corporate career paths of yesteryear, but this doesn’t mean that realizing our dreams and pursuing our ambitions is something to be forgotten or toned down. The only thing that you are responsible for is how you channel your thoughts and emotions to allow your ambition to flow freely, fruiting work, and an attitude that paves the way to success. Yes, many of the job roles of yesterday are gone, but all this means is that we need to create our own positions in business and society.
Appreciate Step-By-Step Success
Technology enables us to do almost anything that we’d normally do in person, digitally. The digital divide has been crossed and bridged. Those who are brave enough to create new foundations on this unexplored ground are those who will reach unforeseen potential. You aren’t defined by the role that someone else gives you in their company. Every aspect of your life and career should be seen as the veritable stepping stone that it is towards actualizing your dreams. Even if the current point in your career path isn’t a perfect match to your affinity, one needs to reframe the situation as the veritable opportunity that it is to sustain momentum along your path. After all, relishing the experience itself awards one with both perspective and appreciation letting you never slow down in the pursuit of your goals but rather capitalize on each stepping stone as the catalyst that it is for success.
There May Be No Safety Net, But Opportunity Is There
For so many of us, the fallback jobs and in-between gigs that we relied on are no longer there, but don’t let this stifle your ambition. There was too much competition, far too many people relying on that industry than was in your best interests anyway. Sure, it may take more initiative and self-drive than before to chase down something unfamiliar or to establish yourself as a professional in a new field, but once you do, it will pay off for the rest of your life. Compromise and conformity are not examples of exercising your free will. Forsaking choice will leave a forever-bitter taste. With last decades recession and the looming collapse at the forefront of our worries, pivoting is becoming normal. Just don’t make the mistake of changing trajectory and slowing down. The same level of energy, dedication, and ambition that you had at any peak point of your life is still there bubbling and rising. All you need to do is release the pressure of anxiety, uncertainty, and the attitude of fight or flight.
Explore All Your Options And Never Stop Pushing
Once worries are released, challenges begin to appear as opportunities. Options arise in the place of what may have recently seemed like closed doors. As soon as you connect to your innate ambition and drive, enthusiasm will begin to rise and fuel you. In light of the toll that time has taken on the world over the past year, many will find that their ambition arises with newfound goals inclusive of a broader perspective. We’ll all been forced to gaze into our humanity, and it’s near-impossible to deny the realization that world needs to address its issues. With this comes personal responsibility in some form for each and every one of us, changing the things that we aspire to do and become. With new wind in our sails and a vague map of the future landscape of business, let us move forward bravely and ambitiously. Every challenge we face is vantage, elevated perspective granting insight for the next opportunity. Stay positive and keep innovating.