I love ambition. I think ambition is the fuel we need for people to have a desire to grow and improve. However, there is a dangerous side to ambition and that is the propensity for it to devour gratitude. When you have too much ambition, you forget the value of the riches that are set before you. When you have too much ambition, you forget to value the relationships that you have, the people that you know, the people that have helped you and the bounty that you have been provided. We all have to recognize that God, or whatever you consider God to be, has granted you all that you have now. That can all be taking away pretty quickly. The table set before you can be eaten by another person.
Ambition needs a healthy check. Consider this thought. What do you have on the table before you? Have you been given a full plate with good opportunity, are your needs provided for? If that is all good, then your ambition is probably coming from the wrong place and also aimed in the wrong direction. Inappropriate ambition directed in the wrong path is almost always a disaster waiting to happen. Everyone that thinks they are awesome, keeps thinking that way, right up until the moment that they are not and then the ability to recover is often times a very humiliating process. The more misguided ambition you put into the universe, the harder it is to pick yourself up when you fail.
I know this from personal experience, ambition left unchecked can never be satisfied. You will lead a life always looking for the next thing, the next win, the next validation of your false impression of your self importance. Be grateful for what you have. Be gracious with what you have been blessed with.
Guy Reams
