This ambition post is built around a phrase I used with my kids and grandchildren. The phrase is – ‘You can get anywhere from here’. Let me explain.
I live in a small village and however you look at it you wouldn’t say it is the nerve center of the world. A traffic jam here is two cars waiting to get on to the main road. When the kids were growing up, like kids everywhere they sometimes used to moan about what was available where they lived. My response was ‘you can get anywhere from here’. In other words whatever you want to do or wherever you want to go you can get from here.
If you want to you will and if it’s not that big a deal you won’t bother. The kids reasoning and attitude is very much like a lot of people’s reaction to their circumstances. They look at their present location, position or circumstances and say they cannot get what they want because of where they are. If they came to me for advice, guess what I’d say, yep, ‘you can get anywhere from here’.
The most important thing in life is not your circumstances but your ambition to achieve or do what you want to do.
If you want to earn extra cash … you can.
If you want to enjoy adventure breaks … you can.
If you want to explore home business ideas … you can.
The dictionary definition of ambition is to have an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment. If you have true ambition it doesn’t matter where you are right now. Because ‘you can get anywhere from here’.
There are many many people who you can read about that had ambition to achieve in a particular field but at the beginning didn’t show any indication that they would succeed. In fact people around them laughed at them and wrote them off as dreamers. Again there are many stories of people who have suffered all kinds of serious setbacks in various areas of life. And from the ashes of traumatic events they have risen to glory. We read the accounts of those involved in sport, business, entertainment and life in general and we are amazed at the drive and persistence to overcome all obstacles in their way.
Ambition isn’t just thinking or talking about what you want to do. Neither is it planning it out on a piece of paper or a fancy computer program. It is really knowing where you want to go and how to get there. And then taking whatever action is required to get there. No ifs or buts, just success. Ambition really is the key to success.
There is a quote that sums up ambition from Ferdinand Magellan. He was an explorer in the early to middle sixteenth century and was the first man to sail around the world.
“The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore…Unlike the mediocre, intrepid spirits seek victory over those things that seem impossible…It is with an iron will that they embark on the most daring of all endeavours…to meet the shadowy future without fear and conquer the unknown.”
When Magellan set sail his mind set was ‘I can get anywhere from here’. Even though he was going where no one had been before. He didn’t contemplate failure only success and for that he had to pay a price. [Why not read his story.]
Wherever you are, right now, if you want things you have to make them happen. You must take action, overcome all obstacles and persevere until you are successful. If I was right there in the room with you today and you told me what you wanted to do. My response would be, ’you can get anywhere from here’.
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