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We’re starting with dictionary definitions of ambition and success because we want to strip them down from all the associations you may have made about both words. Think of a house that someone has painted over again and again, and that needs to be stripped back to a shell and rebuilt to achieve a home that’s redesigned and redecorated properly as well as beautifully. The same has happened to these big concepts of ambition and success. They have become overloaded with the meanings you’ve absorbed around you. One of the things we’re aiming to do is to help you redefine ambition and success on your terms.

So let’s get to the basics. According to the Oxford Dictionary ambition is:

A strong desire to do or achieve something

Desire and determination to achieve success

On the online Dictionary.com we find ambition described as:

An earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment

In the Oxford Dictionary there are various definitions of success:

The accomplishment of an aim or purpose

The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status

A person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains fame, wealth

All the above definitions are food for thought aren’t they? It’s evident that the classic definitions of ambition are about wanting to accomplish an aim that is connected to success, and that the overall definitions of success are based on accomplishing goals that are invariably connected to wealth and status.

By flagging up these definitions we may have depressed you a teeny bit. There may be a thought at the back of your mind that there are people who have a knack of rising to the top and making money and having everything, but you’re not that type. But you don’t have to be that or any type.

“ A definition of ambition based on seeking and aspiring to something gives each of us the opportunity to choose what we want to achieve. ”

Kele Baker, mind-body-movement coach

Who says we have to accept dictionary definitions? Think of all those modern words that only in recent years have entered dictionaries, like Google, text and smartphone. Who says ambition has to go hand in hand with success, or that success is dependent on a certain type of ambition? If ambition is the desire to achieve a goal and that goal is happiness, or fulfilment, isn’t that success? How about if you substitute the word ‘wealth’ with ‘prosperity’, and the word ‘fame’ with ’recognition’? Think about this and it will click: you have an approachable vision of success that relates to you.

So let’s look at how you can reformulate ambition and success in a way that works for you.