An ambitious person: a positive or negative character trait

Most of our readers, and we are sure of this, have encountered ambitious individuals. Or they themselves are such. But if such a person meets in a company, then it is easy to identify him. He is confident in himself, stands “above others”, and has inflated demands on his destiny. It is precisely such individuals who achieve high results if, in addition to ambition, they use other characteristic character traits to achieve goals - perseverance, diligence, hard work, determination, etc. But let's find out how good it is to be ambitious, and what a person's low ambitions mean, why, for what reason this trait is formed.

What is ambition

According to the definition of psychologists, ambition is a certain level of ambition of a person striving to achieve his goals. The main desires of this type are to be the center of attention on a positive basis, to be held in high esteem and to be content with the respect of others. Such a person devotes his life to achieving both material and professional benefits by realizing his abilities in various fields corresponding to his interests.

We often say about such people: “He will achieve a lot! He needs everything from this life!” In cases where a person does not make a claim to this life and does not want to achieve much, he is considered a person with a low level of ambition.

And the one who sets ambitious goals for himself and is ready to “gnaw the earth” just to achieve the set goals is considered a person with inflated ambitions. Based on everything described, we can imagine an easy and quickly memorized interpretation of an ambitious person. This is the status that a person is aiming for - it can be overestimated or underestimated.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ambition

Everyone needs ambition in reasonable quantities. After all, it encourages you to move forward.

This is not its only advantage:

• desire to become successful;
• the need to maintain good physical shape;
• self-development;
• achieving all set goals;
• lack of fear of difficulties;
• the right priorities.

Despite so many positive aspects, being ambitious also has its disadvantages. A person may not get what he wants even if he works hard. In such cases, he has a number of unpleasant qualities:

• selfishness;
• arrogance;
• irritability;
• ruthlessness;
• deceit;
• uncompromisingness;
• aggressiveness.

Such people strive to manipulate others, are constantly offended, and have difficulty communicating.

How are human ambitions realized?

The term “ambition” is treated differently in different nationalities. For example, since ancient times in Rus' modesty, calmness, poise, respect, and selflessness have been held in high esteem. And if someone says that he is ambitious, then he is treated negatively. Since the word is associated with pride, pride, arrogance. But as far as European culture is concerned, they hold the word ambition in high esteem. They perceive it as a desire to achieve their goals, implement plans, and be successful.

It is worth understanding that the word “ambition” itself is not translated entirely positively. In English, “ambition” means vanity, ambition, vanity. And for this reason, in European countries, in some cases, the attitude towards ambition is very ambiguous.

There is a fact - ambitious people are often distinguished by their arrogance, boastfulness, arrogance, and even deceitful character. They are arrogant, arrogant, cynical and can, as they say, go “over corpses” just to satisfy their ambitions.

A negative attitude towards an ambitious person is often due to the fact that because of his claims, others feel discomfort. For example, if a person wants to buy an expensive car, he has to save on the family budget. Of course, in such a situation such a person will be treated negatively.

It’s the same with a woman for whom the main thing is to climb the career ladder. She doesn’t want to have children, she spends a long time in the office and doesn’t think about what people are waiting for her at home. And it is quite natural that this state of affairs causes discomfort due to the career woman’s ambitions.

Portrait of an ambitious person

What is ambition in simple words? Movement towards your goal. A person with healthy ambition reaches his or her full potential. He never stops. Having solved one problem, he moves on. An ambitious person is confident in his abilities and ability to get what he needs. In some cases, he doesn't even know how exactly this will happen. Therefore, he relies on intuition and life experience.

Brief description of an ambitious personality

A person with great ambitions can be recognized by 3 signs:

1. Always engaged in self-development. Spends a lot of time attending or watching online versions of trainings, seminars, and webinars on personal growth. Realizes that progress does not stand still. And therefore strives to update knowledge in all areas, including household ones.
2. Has a high sense of self-esteem and adequate self-esteem. An ambitious person exudes self-confidence. It manifests itself in a neat appearance, posture, gait, and precision in actions. Such a person speaks about himself exclusively in a positive way. They calmly reflect any negative attacks in their direction.
3. Successfully builds a career. We are not talking about talents and abilities here. Often the more talented person does not advance. An ambitious person knows exactly what he wants, is confident in his abilities and in his ultimate success.

Another trait of such individuals is optimism. Even with setbacks and failures, they do not give up on their dreams. Mistakes are experience for them. Therefore, having stumbled, they get up to continue their journey.

What are the types of ambitions?

As we already know, ambitions can be overestimated or underestimated. But let's look at each of them separately.

1. So, inflated ambitions - a person sets goals for himself, but for this he has neither financial, nor intellectual, nor time grounds. He acts arrogant and swaggering, boasts, but in reality he is nothing of himself. A simple and accessible example is girls from the outback who dream of becoming stage stars. No, no one is saying that there are no talented people in the province. But if we are talking about someone who has neither a voice, nor artistry, nor an attractive appearance, then what kind of fulfillment of desires in terms of “stardom” can we talk about?
2. Low ambitions - a person sets himself small-scale, simple desires and does not pretend to anything more in this life. The question may concern the choice of the other half, career, material wealth.
3. There is also a third type of ambition – adequate. Already by the name we understand that quality is inherent in an intelligent, intellectually developed, wise person. Such types are capable of achieving their goals, but they go towards them gradually, without disturbing the quality of life of those around them and taking into account the interests of loved ones. Ambitions can concern different areas of life. Therefore, psychologists also distinguish political, careerist, champion, imperial and other types of ambitions.

Experts also distinguish between different areas:

Professional. Those who decided to build an excellent career, achieve a high and well-paid position, and have as many people as possible subordinates have precisely this type of ambition. Quality is inherent to owners of holdings, offices, and enterprises. But if the road to realizing your desires was wrong, the wrong decisions were made, you can remain a banal workaholic and never achieve what you want. It is important to set priorities on time and correctly and abandon the secondary, unimportant.

Family. In this case, a person wants to find an ideal soul mate and build harmonious family relationships in which there will be no place for scandals and omissions. In his dreams, there is always a picture of a family in which there are children, where everyone is friends, communicates, is frank and honest with each other. Well, this is a normal and completely realizable desire. The main thing is not to overdo it with the ideal partner. If you demand from your spouse (wife) to conform to the ideal personality, conflicts and breakup are possible.

It is worth understanding that ideal people do not exist. And if your picture of the future is violated by the usual quarrel, omissions, refusal of children to obey and do everything their own way - you live in an illusory world. Look at yourself from the outside. Does your attitude towards others, your character traits and habits correspond to your dreams of an ideal family? It is unlikely that you also have shortcomings. The main thing is to find love and understanding, and everything else can be survived.

In the heat of building ideal family relationships, ambitious parents often force their children to live up to their ideals. The requirement to study better, to achieve success in languages, exact sciences and other subjects can lead to a child’s nervous breakdown and rebellion. At one point, he will refuse to do anything at all and, to prove his independence, will go to great lengths.

In order to at least get closer to your desires, you should learn to talk to your child, listen and hear his arguments. Connection, openness and trust are essential. This is the only way to find a common language. Imposing your ambitious family plans on everyone is stupid and counterproductive.

Financial. Well, we have many like-minded people on this issue. Who among us does not dream of improving our financial affairs? And make sure that you don’t need anything, don’t look for anything, don’t borrow in order to “plug” money holes in the family budget. But believe me, our problems have nothing to do with financial ambitions. There is a desire here to have lots and lots and lots of money. In this case, unlike normal people who want to live like a human being, everything is aimed at only one thing - to have wealth. In such cases, ambitious people do not think about others, they become greedy, stingy and pragmatic in everything.

Political. We can watch the activities of individuals with political ambitions every day on television. These are deputies, officials, political scientists, presidents, chancellors, prime ministers, etc. But it is worth understanding that such persons do not just aim to occupy some high position. They dream of ruling states and enjoying the authority of almost the entire planet. As a rule, future politicians have been interested in political talk shows, magazines, and newspapers since childhood. They begin their political “career” while still at school. They participate in the editorial board, publish wall newspapers, hold a post in the school parliament, participate in debate clubs, etc.

Portrait of an ambitious person

Having achieved one goal, he immediately sets another. His movement is always forward. Such a person differs from an ordinary dreamer in that he sincerely believes in himself and his ability to get what he wants.

Sometimes the aspirant does not even know how to do it, does not have a plan of action and moves intuitively, receiving answers to his questions on the go.

Brief description of an ambitious personality

1. Constant personal growth - such people always learn something. Courses, trainings, coaching, seminars, webinars, reading books... They periodically update their base of professional and everyday knowledge, knowing full well that the world does not stand still;
2. An ambitious person knows his worth. Those around him “feel his self-esteem through their skin”: he is well and neatly dressed, holds his back straight, his actions are precise and confident, he says only good things about himself. Such an individual will stop any attack on his pride or disrespectful attitude calmly and fearlessly. Yes, such people are rarely attacked;
3. He always achieves a successful career. Thanks to internal aspirations, he achieves higher results compared to more talented but less ambitious colleagues;
4. Such individuals are usually optimistic. They believe in the best and do not perceive their failures too critically; they fall and rise, and start again. There is little that can unsettle them, lead them astray from the intended path and abandon the idea.

Realization of ambitions

Ambition in character motivates every individual to action. If they are not there, then you can lie on the couch and admire the successes of others. If there is ambition in a person’s character, then he sets goals for himself and does everything to get to them.

But it also happens that ambition is a negative character trait. We can talk about positivity if a person has reason to hope for the realization of his plans - education, personal growth, knowledge. If a person does not have the basis for forming and implementing plans, then ambitions are false. It's like a mirage in the desert, it builds on the sand and disappears just as well. To understand how this is, we suggest studying a specific example.

“This was in the late 80s. The two girls were close friends. Natalya and Zhanna were the same age, but they studied in different classes. So, Zhanna always studied well and dreamed of going to medical school. Natalya, on the contrary, was sickly, studied with C grades, but her plans also had an element of grandiosity. She loved languages ​​and dreamed of entering the faculty of foreign languages ​​or journalism.

Both graduated from school and began to prepare for admission. Zhanna studied non-stop, and Natalya didn’t seem to miss days of preparation. But then came the admission, and one managed to pass the exams and become a student, but the other did not. It’s just that Natasha’s plans were based on “mirages”. She did not have the appropriate knowledge and naturally failed the exams.

Years passed, one of the friends, as expected, graduated from university and began working as a doctor. And the second one got married and for a long time did not think about getting an education. Only after family troubles, left alone with the child, Natalya decided to try her luck again. She began to prepare to enter the university at the Faculty of Law.

She studied in the correspondence department, each time she had to pay extra for taking tests and exams. As a result, she still received a diploma. But why does she need it for someone who does not have clear, adequate ambitions to achieve success in the legal field? Surely many people guessed that Natasha hid the diploma in the chest of drawers and never thought about it again.”

We studied a banal, but very instructive story, Natasha seemed to have ambitions, but did not have the desire or determination to achieve results and work on them. They were false.

Is it possible to fight ambitions?

If a person’s ambitions interfere with his life or create discomfort for those around him, it makes sense to fight them. But there is one But! This is the same as in the case of an alcoholic or drug addict. It is impossible to fix a problem unless the person suffering from the “problem” wants it. If he has not admitted that his ambitions are harmful, then there is no point in doing anything.

In the case where there is agreement, you need to start by analyzing your actions and activities. It is important to identify positive and negative character traits. To do this, you should take a piece of blank paper and write down on it all the bad things that you notice about yourself. And every time fight the negative quality. Of course, it is impossible to improve immediately. But time is on your side - keep fighting and you will succeed.

1. You need to learn to respond normally to criticism from those who truly treat you with respect and love. There is no need to see a catch, betrayal, deceit in everything. Only people who truly love you can tell the truth. And your ill-wishers, observing your baseless ambition, happily rub their hands.
2. If you have a desire to realize your ambitions, pay attention to how adequate they are, whether they correspond to your internal and external potential. If yes, continue, and there is no need to fight it; if you don’t have the opportunity, refuse and don’t make people laugh. Communication with loved ones will help with this. Listen to their assessment of your activities and advice. It is not necessary to do everything, but it is still necessary to weigh the pros and cons of a particular task.

How ambitions arise

Most believe that ambition is an inherited quality. This opinion has a right to life, because it is not based on nothing. Notice who is the ambitious person? Often this is the son or daughter of successful people who have reached great heights. Or the offspring of talkers, braggarts, greedy people and stingy people who raised their children in the same way. But if you dig deeper, you cannot call ambition a hereditary trait.

Everything is formed during childhood and for this reason children are similar to their parents. It is adults who can instill in a child high, low, or adequate ambitions. For example, parents are dentists who understand that for a career as a dentist it is necessary to study well, graduate from medical school, and constantly improve. They teach the child hard work. From an early age he attends various clubs and sections, is involved in exact sciences, sports, etc.

In the case when the children in the family are not interested in anything, but only do what they dream of a successful career in some industry, nothing will be achieved. Their ambitions are too high. And finally, despite the fact that their beloved child does well at school, gets good grades, and attends sports clubs, the parents claim that he will not achieve anything. This is a perfect example of understated ambition. She is raised as a child by his parents - pessimists, whiners and losers. The saying “water does not flow under a lying stone” applies here more than ever!

Ambitions are often the product of unfounded admiration for the child’s actions. It happens like this - a child picks up a candy wrapper from the floor - and the whole family is simply delighted with a normal act. Then he was able to turn on the TV himself - “wow, what a great guy!” Then there are performances in kindergarten, school, and from each such moment the relatives lose consciousness, what an event! That is, ordinary actions cause a violent reaction, based on nothing. The baby gets used to easy successes and develops ambitions. With age, the child's aspirations grow in accordance with the growth of needs.

Fortunately, there are many exceptional moments when a child who grew up in a family with inadequate development of ambitions is able to achieve a lot. This especially happens to those who have constantly heard that they will not be able to achieve success. But here it’s not – “I can do it!” “Why am I worse than others!” He challenges society and proves that everything is achievable, the main thing is to fight against low ambitions. And go towards your intended goal without stopping and without doubting your abilities.

“You need to be especially lazy, to reach a certain level in this skill”

In his speech to Yahoo! Jack Ma shared that the secret to his success is “laziness,” but he also mentioned that this “laziness” is somewhat different from the general idea of ​​laziness.

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“There are many very smart and educated people in the world who cannot succeed. This is because they have been taught the wrong things since childhood and have developed the vice of hard work.

Many of you remember the words of Thomas Edison: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% labor.” I have been misled by this statement all my life. I made efforts, but in the end I did not get results. In fact, Edison came up with this to mislead us because he was too lazy to think about the real reason for his success. Many of you may think that I am talking some kind of nonsense, well, let me prove the opposite to you with 100 examples! Facts speak louder than words.

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There are smart lazy people:

• They are too lazy to climb stairs - they invented the elevator;
• They are too lazy to walk - they invented cars, trains and planes;
• They are too lazy to kill people one by one - they invented the atomic bomb;
• They are too lazy to carry out complex calculations every time - they invented mathematical formulas;
• They are too lazy to go to music concerts - they invented audio cassettes and discs.

There are so many examples of this that I don’t even see the point of continuing this list. And this stupidity should also be mentioned, life is movement, and what athlete have you seen live long? The longest living people in the world are monks who are too lazy to eat meat, right?

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I don’t even want to think about what kind of environment we would live in now if it weren’t for these lazy people! This applies to both people and animals. The longest living animal in the world is the turtle. She barely moves her entire life, just lies there, and eventually lives to be a thousand years old. The turtle moves lazily while the hardworking and active rabbits try to overtake it, but who will win in the end? The cow is the hardest worker and that's why people feed her grass, but they have to milk her. The panda is so stupid that he does nothing but eat bamboo all day, and people affectionately call him a “national treasure.”

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Let's get back to our work. Remember the person in your company who is the first to arrive, the last to leave every day and works all day, does he really have the highest salary? Isn't that guy who sits around every day and does nothing but fool around the highest paid?

The examples I gave above simply illustrate the fact that the world actually runs on lazy people. The world is so beautiful thanks to lazy people. Now you know the main reason for your lack of success!

Lazy is not just a lazy person, you have to understand how to be lazy. You need to be especially lazy and reach a certain level in this skill. I have been a lazy person since childhood, I was even too lazy to gain weight. I didn't even bother building muscle. This is the real level! Thank you!".

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Modern ambitions – what they look like

Experienced psychology experts say that ambition today is the main way to achieve positive results in life. Ambitiousness has become a fashionable character trait, otherwise you “can’t survive” in our world. We kindly ask readers not to confuse the ambition of modern man with greed and cynicism.

Let's think, with such competition, a huge number of applicants for a good job and salary, is it possible to “survive” without ambition? No, perhaps somewhere on the outskirts of the country, with no prospects for the future. But as we already know, they must be healthy and adequate. And the formation of aspirations is influenced by such qualities as a person’s self-esteem, heredity, training and personal aspects.

1. Self-esteem is very closely related to the aspirations of an individual. Those who have it too high have an inflated type of ambition. And with low self-esteem, you shouldn’t count on more than low claims. And of course, an adequate level of self-esteem is a healthy aspiration.
2. Family. In some homes, the main word when raising a child is “should”! Hearing it from childhood, the child grows up to be someone who must meet the desires and expectations of adults.
3. Personal factors - we are all divided into two types of people - introverts and extroverts. The first ones are closed, do not make contact and live in their own world. The latter, on the contrary, have a high level of communication, easily get to know and make friends with people. And of course, these qualities influence ambition. And what is noteworthy is that introverts often have inflated aspirations. And extroverts try to please everyone and everything and are not able to achieve much due to a low degree of ambition.

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