Sobering Quote Reveals How Ambition Impacts Happiness
Today I cam across a quote that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It’s a quote from former President Lyndon Johnson. He wrote these words while in college sometime in 1927.
Ambition is an uncomfortable companion. He creates a discontent with present surroundings and achievements: he is never satisfied but always pressing forward to better things in the future.
This quote was rather sobering for me as I know one of the keys to happiness is to practice mindfulness of the present. However, my ambition to achieve what I perceive as my “full potential” creates a constant internal battle between my ambition and the present.
Managing this battle is no small task either. With this in mind, I believe two things are required to maintain happiness with the present while working toward ambitions.
- A plan that sets the process as the goal and the goal as the compass.
- Focusing ambitions on intrinsic goals as the priority and the extrinsic goal as the by-product.