Читать книгу Real Ambition - Magazine Psychologies - Страница 7

Over the decades, ambition has come to be associated with a type of ruthless, overconfident person who will stop at nothing to achieve what they’re after. Ambition is associated with dog-eats-dog environments where people are hard-nosed and heartless, self-obsessed and egocentric.

But why should a desire to make a dream come true mean having to be a caricature of ambition? We’re certainly not going to give you the secrets of ruthless successful people that work while leaving out the bad bits, because this book is about developing a holistic approach. When your ambition nurtures you, we believe that the rest follows.

Old-style ambition has simply fallen flat on its face. We know that thanks to one word: recession. The most ambitious people, those who were the most ruthless and the wealthiest, wiped out entire economies. We don’t propose to get into a discussion on economics and politics here. But we hope the brief reminder of this period in our history will help to show that you don’t need the traits traditionally associated with ambition. Being ruthless, cut-throat and hard won’t serve you as a person or your wellbeing, and won’t benefit humanity.

“ Ambition is often seen as achieving things at the expense of others. ”

John Purkiss, headhunter and coach

Whether you have a specific dream or you’re looking for a way to create a specific life, you may be wondering whether you need a watered-down version of ruthless, some sort of healthy go-go-go. The problem with old-style ambition is that any form of go-go-go can lead to imbalance. Think of workaholics and anyone you know who works relentlessly and doesn’t have a life and you'll get the picture.

One of the blocks stopping you might even be a fear that to make your dreams happen you'll have to give up friends and hobbies and isolate yourself. This certainly isn’t the kind of success we have in mind.