Anyone else totally without ambition?
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Lots of very insightful posts on this thread.
I've always though of myself as ambitious, and others who are not as wasters to be honest. But as stated by Numanist, since becoming more red pill I've sometimes wondered 'why bother?' Then I have a reality check and crack on solid for a couple of weeks.
Like Western Cancer, at school I put 50% in and got 75% out. Never tried.
Like El Mech, I believe not everyone can have it all- it stands to reason. Also, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. To that end, I work for myself- my attitude is 'I'll try that, if it don't work, I'll try something else'. But I wonder- is that reasoning holding me back, or is it liberating?
A friend and mentor of mine runs a tarmac company. Not because he enjoys it- he hates it. But he knew it would make lots of money.
I don't think I could do something I hated just to make coin.
I've always though of myself as ambitious, and others who are not as wasters to be honest. But as stated by Numanist, since becoming more red pill I've sometimes wondered 'why bother?' Then I have a reality check and crack on solid for a couple of weeks.
Like Western Cancer, at school I put 50% in and got 75% out. Never tried.
Like El Mech, I believe not everyone can have it all- it stands to reason. Also, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. To that end, I work for myself- my attitude is 'I'll try that, if it don't work, I'll try something else'. But I wonder- is that reasoning holding me back, or is it liberating?
A friend and mentor of mine runs a tarmac company. Not because he enjoys it- he hates it. But he knew it would make lots of money.
I don't think I could do something I hated just to make coin.
I've known a lot of really smart guys who work menial jobs and have 0 motivation.
When I get stuck in a rut, I start getting frustrated and eventually find myself snapping under the continued mediocrity. I then go on a binge of self improvement until I get to some arbitrary goal I set (Roosh's latest post on numbered goals hit close to home).
I've noticed this trait in a handful of guys, whereas some people are just happy that they get by and have a comfortable life.
If that's you, then enjoy it. Only you can enjoy your life. For me though, the thought of not being successful makes me annoyed.
When I get stuck in a rut, I start getting frustrated and eventually find myself snapping under the continued mediocrity. I then go on a binge of self improvement until I get to some arbitrary goal I set (Roosh's latest post on numbered goals hit close to home).
I've noticed this trait in a handful of guys, whereas some people are just happy that they get by and have a comfortable life.
If that's you, then enjoy it. Only you can enjoy your life. For me though, the thought of not being successful makes me annoyed.
jakester318
Robin
I'm an American so I can speak about the mentality here (of course, I'm generalizing and to some degree, this is regionally-centric). One day a friend of mine from the West Coat (he's from Eugene, OR) and I were talking about the way people are in Boston compared to Eugene. His observation was that people were more driven to get advanced degrees or climb the corporate ladder or build their law practice, etc. I live in Connecticut and for the most part, people are that way here as well...especially in West Hartford, Stamford, and few other comparable cities.
For me, I could care less about getting an advanced degree. I could care less about climbing the corporate ladder, either. I think that people who endlessly pursue the next thing and have so much ambition seldom take in the simpler things of life, because they are always focused on the next goal. In my opinion, life is better lived by enjoying the things we have already obtained and living a simple life. Of course, that is me. At this stage in my life, I want a job that allows me to make enough money to do the things I enjoy live traveling. But I don't want my director's job. I don't want to work harder for a little more money, only to lose more of my free time. There is a diminishing return when it comes to ambition...at some point, you've done enough things to realize that they don't bring happiness. Happiness is better found in connection to our fellow man. Meaningful relationships are the best thing to have ambition for. Friendships, relationships with family, pursuing opportunities to do things with those that matter...these are worthwhile ambitions. Most of the stuff we chase as people does not really make us better or happy.
I would say that if you lose your ambition to have solid relationships with your mates, venture out of the house to enjoy other people's company, and generally become a recluse and withdrawn person, then you are losing the important definition of ambition. All of the other things we can chase for ambition's sake, in my opinion, they do not matter.
For me, I could care less about getting an advanced degree. I could care less about climbing the corporate ladder, either. I think that people who endlessly pursue the next thing and have so much ambition seldom take in the simpler things of life, because they are always focused on the next goal. In my opinion, life is better lived by enjoying the things we have already obtained and living a simple life. Of course, that is me. At this stage in my life, I want a job that allows me to make enough money to do the things I enjoy live traveling. But I don't want my director's job. I don't want to work harder for a little more money, only to lose more of my free time. There is a diminishing return when it comes to ambition...at some point, you've done enough things to realize that they don't bring happiness. Happiness is better found in connection to our fellow man. Meaningful relationships are the best thing to have ambition for. Friendships, relationships with family, pursuing opportunities to do things with those that matter...these are worthwhile ambitions. Most of the stuff we chase as people does not really make us better or happy.
I would say that if you lose your ambition to have solid relationships with your mates, venture out of the house to enjoy other people's company, and generally become a recluse and withdrawn person, then you are losing the important definition of ambition. All of the other things we can chase for ambition's sake, in my opinion, they do not matter.
RioNomad said:
Unlike some of the others, and maybe because I never had much money growing up, I do have the ambition of making a shit load of money, the more the better, but like RioNomad I still haven't found exactly what drives me. I think only when I get my own business, if ever, I'll be 100% committed.
I'm pretty content working a shit factory job. It's manual labor but there's no stress at all. Every day there's downtime at work and though it is more boring since I quit smoking (for good, hopefully), all I do is bullshit with coworkers and tell shitty jokes. On the weekends I look for sluts and go out drinking and I lift every day. Haven't had it this easy in years.
I just read through this thread, and I found several very interesting perspectives regarding whether guys are ambitious – and some guys are early in their careers and other guys are later in their careers. Certainly, stage of career causes a difference.
I came from a large working class family in rural America, and no real expectation of inherited wealth. Most of my family members were not wealthy and most had no college education, either. Accordingly, I always assumed that I had to strive for some sort of income related to work that would provide my income security.
After high school I enlisted in the military, and I figured that I would just continue within my working-class expectations or work to attain job security.
As I was in the military, I came to the belief that guys in my surroundings did not really have many aspirations in life – maybe I was over generalizing in my perspective; however, accordingly, I began to look into possible professions. On my days off work, I would go to the library and peruse career books and consider compatible careers.
I came to the belief that almost everything interesting to me, required higher education. Accordingly, I began taking college courses, and the acquisition of knowledge became contagious through my undergrad and into graduate school. Maybe some guys will consider an education to be a big waste of time.. who knows, but I found college as fulfilling – and I really enjoyed being around lots of young women...
My ambitions were not specifically focused on the attainment of money, but money did flow into my life based on my college work, based on volunteer work and having career-related ambitions.
Now, I am in my 40s, and I have an opportunity to move away from career-related ambitions, and it seems that my nest egg is sufficiently large to generate an adequate passive income in which I do NOT have to work in order to adequately provide for myself. Accordingly, this shades my views and my ambitions will have to evolve accordingly to have reasons to get out of bed.
There are some difficulties for me to find ambition to carry out the work of the various transitional issues; however, currently, the anticipation of the reward of travel and possible access to young chicks that are NOT really accessible to me in living in the 1st world is currently providing me with ambition….
We will see how travel plays out in the years ahead in order to continue to create ambitions, whether I will feel that I will have to add work to my schedule in order to feel meaning in life and to get out of bed. In the past, my ambition had come from feeling that I had to build enough of a nest egg for income security, and now that I seem to have a sufficient quantity, and accordingly, I may not have to make additional efforts towards working, I am not sure about how that is going to play out for me in regard to continuing to cause ambitions.
In sum, my understanding of how ambition played out for me is that I felt that I have always had to have it because there was no golden parachute that was provided for me in the event that I did not push towards some career / financial security goals. Guys on this forum could make some mistakes if they chose not to have ambitions before they have in place some kind of a plan for their future – at least financially – because they may look back and regret that they did not make a plan – and certain paths are more easily attempted at earlier ages in life rather than when older. In other words, some paths close off with age – yes, even in America ☺ ☺ - the land of supposed opportunities. For example, if someone wanted to be a doctor, he has to compete with people who have made extensive preparations by the time they are in their early 20s… not impossible to do at a later age, but more obstacles, the later a guy starts.
In that regard, if guys on this forum do not have plans and goals for future finance, you may end up in a place that you did not want to be and could have prevented or at least made better.
Below are four quotes that advocate for goal setting:
“If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else.”
― Yogi Berra
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
― Michelangelo Buonarroti
“If you're trying to be miserable, it's important you don't have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind.”
― John Bytheway, How to Be Totally Miserable
“If you're bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don't have enough goals.”
― Lou Holtz
I came from a large working class family in rural America, and no real expectation of inherited wealth. Most of my family members were not wealthy and most had no college education, either. Accordingly, I always assumed that I had to strive for some sort of income related to work that would provide my income security.
After high school I enlisted in the military, and I figured that I would just continue within my working-class expectations or work to attain job security.
As I was in the military, I came to the belief that guys in my surroundings did not really have many aspirations in life – maybe I was over generalizing in my perspective; however, accordingly, I began to look into possible professions. On my days off work, I would go to the library and peruse career books and consider compatible careers.
I came to the belief that almost everything interesting to me, required higher education. Accordingly, I began taking college courses, and the acquisition of knowledge became contagious through my undergrad and into graduate school. Maybe some guys will consider an education to be a big waste of time.. who knows, but I found college as fulfilling – and I really enjoyed being around lots of young women...
My ambitions were not specifically focused on the attainment of money, but money did flow into my life based on my college work, based on volunteer work and having career-related ambitions.
Now, I am in my 40s, and I have an opportunity to move away from career-related ambitions, and it seems that my nest egg is sufficiently large to generate an adequate passive income in which I do NOT have to work in order to adequately provide for myself. Accordingly, this shades my views and my ambitions will have to evolve accordingly to have reasons to get out of bed.
There are some difficulties for me to find ambition to carry out the work of the various transitional issues; however, currently, the anticipation of the reward of travel and possible access to young chicks that are NOT really accessible to me in living in the 1st world is currently providing me with ambition….
We will see how travel plays out in the years ahead in order to continue to create ambitions, whether I will feel that I will have to add work to my schedule in order to feel meaning in life and to get out of bed. In the past, my ambition had come from feeling that I had to build enough of a nest egg for income security, and now that I seem to have a sufficient quantity, and accordingly, I may not have to make additional efforts towards working, I am not sure about how that is going to play out for me in regard to continuing to cause ambitions.
In sum, my understanding of how ambition played out for me is that I felt that I have always had to have it because there was no golden parachute that was provided for me in the event that I did not push towards some career / financial security goals. Guys on this forum could make some mistakes if they chose not to have ambitions before they have in place some kind of a plan for their future – at least financially – because they may look back and regret that they did not make a plan – and certain paths are more easily attempted at earlier ages in life rather than when older. In other words, some paths close off with age – yes, even in America ☺ ☺ - the land of supposed opportunities. For example, if someone wanted to be a doctor, he has to compete with people who have made extensive preparations by the time they are in their early 20s… not impossible to do at a later age, but more obstacles, the later a guy starts.
In that regard, if guys on this forum do not have plans and goals for future finance, you may end up in a place that you did not want to be and could have prevented or at least made better.
Below are four quotes that advocate for goal setting:
“If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else.”
― Yogi Berra
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
― Michelangelo Buonarroti
“If you're trying to be miserable, it's important you don't have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind.”
― John Bytheway, How to Be Totally Miserable
“If you're bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don't have enough goals.”
― Lou Holtz
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