Ambition. The good and the bad.
As I have said over the years… “anything too much can become toxic, anything too little can lead to deficiencies”.
During my mentor business building call yesterday, I had an “Ah-ha” moment on my life, my reactions and my mindset.
Then I started to look into defining AMBITION and looking at positive mindset.
I came across this Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/TFbv757kup4… the Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong.
We have choices but how does our actions impact our experiences?
My coach said to me… and I have heard this before “our believes dictates our experiences, and our experiences dictate our believes.
How do we create negative programming that leads to feeling stuck in life and a failure?
Do we make a list at night of our positive experiences for the day or WINS and then write at least three things we are grateful for that day?
Do we wake up in the morning and practice yoga then meditate outside?
If we want to burn fat, optimize health and improve performance in life- then shouldn’t we include working on our mindset and attitudes in life as well?
What are your “bad” habits? How could those thoughts be hurting you?
For example – checking social media upon waking and going to bed… how are we wiring our brains and setting up our intentions when we are comparing ourselves, unknowingly, to others? The Ted Talk “envying friends on Facebook can lead to depression”.
What is your mindset when you wake up and start your day?
What is your belief about yourself- your personality, your skill set and your strengths?
Do we live life with the intention that if we work hard then we deserve success?
What is success to you?
Getting paid 10k per month? Financial success? Family? Friends? Fitness? The big F’s in life!
What if you set too high of ambitious goals in life then you don’t achieve them? For myself, I am often a driven, ambitious and high performing individual in all areas of life, so when I set goals and I don’t achieve them -then I feel discouraged, disappointed and feel as a failure.
Of course, I had to look up the definition of AMBITION:
…a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.
“her ambition was to become a pilot”
…the desire and determination to achieve success.
“life offered few opportunities for young people with ambition”
One of my mantras has become “positive vibes-positive attititude-postive mindset”…but how do we reprogram our brain to keep this mindset instead of putting ourselves down when we set ambitious goals and we don’t reach them? How do we stop comparing ourselves to others who are different than we are, but we still want to be as successful as they are in any area of life?
Of course, there is an article, blog or research for everything… what if you are too ambitious and that ambition leads to depression or self-doubt?
An article on Mind-Body-Green blog post shared –
“The bottom line: With great aspiration comes great responsibility. If we allow the fire of ambition to blaze beyond control, we risk hurting others. We risk harming ourselves. By learning to slow down, enjoy, give thanks, donate time, and dream anew, we make space for breath and balance, patience and perspective. We continue to reach for the stars, but we do so with solid ground beneath our feet” –https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-28605/10-signs-your-own-ambition-is-working-against-you.html
I started to ask Google… and found this article talking about the five most powerful self-beliefs that ignite human behavior.
“self-beliefs are the guiding principles and assessments we make about our personal capabilities and what outcomes we expect as a result of our efforts. By bringing these beliefs to the forefront of consciousness, people can take steps to harness the power and influence of their beliefs” –https://www.elsevier.com/connect/the-5-most-powerful-self-beliefs-that-ignite-human-behavior
Then today my friend, staying with us for the week, brought up this program that he is doing online … to help create and choose the person who you want to be – who is your future self?
https://30dayfutureself.com/30-day-create-your-future-self
Who were you ten years ago?
You are probably not the same person as you were ten years ago – I know my “former self” is very different as I was living life as a race, running a small business and racing full time as a top age group triathlete.
I have always been a driven, high performing, ambitious individual in life. I went from competing in endurance events, starting in 1995 with shorter distance races then to the big ones (Ironman) in 2001 and other long-distance races.
I was a very ambitious personal trainer/coach/manager in opening my fitness studio in 2009 then overly ambitious to build a larger studio (3325 sq. ft. with high rent and increasing each year), in 2010 until I closed it October 1st, 2019 (thankfully). I dreamed of opening an “all in one” fitness studio to offer circuit training with TRX, Pilates, Yoga, personal training, massage, acupuncture and nutrition programs… all on my own.
I was very ambitious in racing Ironman in June 2012 then decide I could do another one in August then qualify for World Championships in September and October…then do a long trail run in the Enchantments that same October then a marathon in November then the SF North Face 50k in December then a marathon in January 2013 then a 50k in February 2013…then nothing really since then as my body became broken and burned out.
I was very ambitious that I could write a book “LIFE IS NOT A RACE” while I was working on “slowing down” and changing my fast pace lifestyle. I just switched out my heavy training load to working on writing my first book. Then I thought I best put together my eight elements of “The WHOELSTIC Method” into a workbook and manual the following year.
I was very ambitious in becoming a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP), then Kion Coach (Ben Greenfield) and then Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDNP) while I was struggling to run my small business, boutique fitness studio in a high rent area (downtown Bellevue, WA) and in an competitive industry.
I was very ambitious to close my fitness studio in October 2019 while completing the FDNP course so I could focus on my new passion- health and fitness coaching. Then the “virus” started in March 2020, my business was forced to be online coaching as live personal training had to become a thing of the past. Now I was driven to build a new online health, nutrition and fitness coaching business when I thought people would be interested in getting healthy and burning fat, but they were just focused on surviving 2020!
I was very ambitious to think I could move from Bellevue, WA to San Diego, CA to start a new life and new journey – focused on #qualityoflife with my husband as we both could work remote. My challenge is to build a transformational business while we move into a new house with a remodel going on at the same time as we worked full time at home.
When is being ambitious a good thing …or a bad thing? What is the ideal balance between the two personality traits?
I started to dive into this conversation with my business coach Jenn… why drives me? Why do I always strive to do a new project or a new certification? Who do I compare myself to in life that makes me feel not good enough or not successful?
What about you?
Do you relate??
We are not the same person in the past, but who we think we are today isn’t always going to be the person I am going to become.
- Do I accept who I am today as the future version of me… or do I want to be different?
- Do I believe that the way I am… my personality is innate, and it is who I will always be in life?
- Do my believes about myself change based on my life experiences?
- Does my personality come from my past or the view of my own future?
- Do I view my future ME as the same person I am today- or someone different?
- Am I able to imagine a different ME in the future… what is the view of ME in the FUTURE is what is driving me today?
- How different is my FUTURE self from the person I am TODAY?
- Do I have a fixed mindset, or do I believe I am able to change, transform and evolve?
I want to view my FUTURE self as someone that is going to be different than the ME today… I need to imagine who my future self is going to be in five or ten years.
The key to making quality decisions in the future -are you clear on where you want to go in the future…without having a clear purpose- our present loses meaning.
How different am I from my former self? My past self?
My competitive, driven athletic self from 2001-2012 are different than my recovery self in 2013-2019 to myself now starting my new journey and pursuing the goal of “quality of life” in 2020 by moving to North San Diego/So Cal.
Now who I am today is going to be different that l who I am in one year from now…as well as five years and ten years from now.
Who do you want to be in five years? Ten years?
I know I am an ambitious, driven, high performing individual but also someone who struggles with doing too much in life and setting goals perhaps too high sometimes that leads me to feel as a failure or stuck in my career.
The Goldilocks Effect.
My past self… I dug myself into a hole – leading to burning out and breaking my body systems. My way of living life as a race- as an ambitious and driven individual lead me to over doing life and then domino effect of dysfunction/imbalances have occurred since February 2013.
What drives you each day?
I know my goal is to help other driven individuals, similar to myself, avoid going down the path that I took ten years ago. Now, I follow my purpose to help other driven ambitious, high performing individuals get their body and vibrant self-back again with my “Health (RE) Building” coaching program.
Let me know if you would like to talk more!
I am happy to chat with you and discover more about your journey.
Debbie
