Ambition and desire are seeds planted within us that urge us to be the best that we can be. It is a fine thing to want to hone your craft as a business person, artist, parent, athlete, teacher or any pursuit that uses your “genius” (your gifts and talents). However, when does this cross over to unhealthy ambition?
It is somewhere around the line where it becomes “unrestrained”. We recognise this shift to unrestrained ambition when the internal dialogue shifts from “do your best” or “go for it” to “you’re the best”, “she doesn’t come close to you” and the realisation that nothing but winning will do.
What has been the real change in the internal dialogue? The words sound strangely similar but the emphasis has changed from competition with yourself to comparison with others. With this change in driver or motivation, we become less predictable in our behavior and what we are prepared to do to ‘win’ can become extraordinary.
