I received a lot of positive feedback for my last motivational words, so I decided to make a little series of it. Today I am going to talk about ambition and all the baggage that comes with it. I am going to talk about why it is important for motivation, and why you should always be ambitious.

I first would like to share a little story about ambitions. When I started photography last year, a lot people became upset with me for wasting my money. They said that my camera would sit around and collect dust, and that it would become an expensive paperweight. It was from that moment that I wanted to prove people wrong and achieve the goals I had set for myself. And now look at me today. I have my own photography firm, I take pictures almost every week, I even started paying for editing software. The investment is quickly paying itself off. Whether or not I make money is something I could care less about, but enjoying it and doing it frequently was something I desired, and something that I strive to achieve.

To do well in life, you have to be ambitious. You have to want to drive to succeed. You have to want to go beyond what others are doing simply by working harder. There is no secret cheat or get better quick method. You have to learn the problems, and think of solutions. It is as simple as that. Going through life without a drive or ambition is basically coasting. You can’t go anywhere in life without ambition. But ambition exists in small ways in our world, and if you capitalize on the feelings that you derive from these small things, and learn to replicate them with bigger, bolder ideas and actions, then there is nothing even the laziest of couch potatoes can’t achieve.

Ambition does actually exist around us. By fulfilling the basic needs of life for food, water and shelter, you are taking on the ambition of survival. It is those ambitions that we have built the base of innovation. It is those sort of things that begin a journey of ambition. To become better and derive greater and greater ideas.

Once you have achieved your first ambition, then you keep going. You don’t stop. Come up with other ambitions, and then achieve those, and then the next ones, and the next ones, and soon enough, you’ll be where you want to be and more. Once you start to achieve, getting to the next level doesn’t seem so hard. It becomes more natural. You begin to adjust to always being ambitious. You stop doing things that detract from your life, and make more and more time for the things that add content. The ambitions pile up, and the list of achievements you add to your resume become endless.

Everyone has so much potential to achieve or to exist in their ambitions, but the ones who are truly great are the ones who make their ambitions real. The ones who truly succeed. A good way to look at ambition is like climbing a hill. You start at the bottom, and the struggle ensues to make it to the top. Sure it’s a tough journey. There’s a lot in your path, a lot going against you. Everyone has a different grade in steepness for their hills. But once you get to the top, the view is unbeatable. You look back and become proud of what you have done, no matter who else has climbed an identical or different hill. It is your hill, and you should be proud of it. When you look out from the top of your hill, you see a world filled with too many hills to count. The mentality you want is to think to yourself “I wonder what the world looks like from those other hills?” So you descend your current hill, and you start up the next one. Begin a new journey, discover new challenges, and see new places. It is all those things that make life so fascinating. It is those sort of things that everyone should want.

What if you fail your ambitions? Well, you have two options then. Try again, or find a different hill. It disappoints me so much when people give up on all ambition after one failure. So many great people quote about failure that can tie to ambitions. You don’t go anywhere if you don’t try. Get back up if you fall down the hill. Try another one, or try the same hill again.

Ambitions are the life blood of achievement. You can not achieve without the desire to do so. People who want to achieve dream big, and their ambitions are as big as they can imagine. They may not make those ambitions, but there are smaller ones inside of the larger ones that there are to find and achieve.

So get up! Think of ways you can improve your life. Think of ways you can further yourself by simply making a plan, and acting upon it. Actions speak decibels above words, so do more than you say. You don’t have to share your ambitions with everyone. Not everyone has to see a Facebook post or an Instagram quote saying what you are going to do. Just don’t forget about what you say. Keep charging the mountain, and soon you’ll be looking down on the world instead of looking up.

Don’t believe me? Here are some of greats and what they have to say about ambition.

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” –Bill Bradley

“I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure” –George W. Bush

“Great Ambition is the passion of a great character… all depends on the principles which direct them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

All quotes taken from BrainyQuote.com