Jul
2
What is ambition anyway?
Filed Under fun, lessons learned
Some years ago I was having dinner with a couple of working mums like myself and we got to talking about work. Of the three of us it appeared that I was the only one who was willing to undertake further personal development ( I was about to start studying part time for a business degree.) The others said that they had too many other things to do with their time and - in any case - they were not surprised that I would do this in my own time as I was “ambitious”.
I recall jumping to my own defence. Ambitious - me? Surely not. As far as I was ( and still am) concerned it is up to me to drive forward my personal development. Only that way could I find out more about what is out there in the big bad world and how I would want to relate to that. I told them that I was not ambitious - but keen to maximise my potential.
They laughed. They were sure they were right and I was wrong. It is fair to say that this put a dampner on the evening for me.
I have thought about this comment from time to time.
I have my trusty Chambers 20th Century dictionary ( 1970 edition no less) beside me at all times. I love words. I like to find new ones…and I regularly check the dictionary meaning of words that I use all the time.
Which brings me to my dictionary’s definition of ambitious.
strongly desirous of anything - esp. power
Aha - that’s it then. That’s why I objected. I am not ambitious for power.
Once again to my trusty dictionary. Not surprisingly the entry for power is quite long but in the context of ambitious it means
right to command, authority: rule: influence: control
That does not help really. Command, authority, rule and control I get . But influence ? In my own simple way I had thought of influencing as a rather benign activity.
Influence as a noun is defined as a person exercising power:the effect of power exerted: and as a verb to affect.
I was becoming increasingly alarmed as to where this was going until I finally found the definition of to affect
to incline:to tend..
That in itself does not help but the word right next to it in the dictionary made me smile
affection - the act of influencing: …and of course it also means “love”
So I feel better now. I have been able to make something that I did not want to be associated with fit with me perfectly!
