Motivation vs Ambition

I have had people tell me that the an important secret to success is motivation, while another is ambition. I always thought they were the same thing. Let’s take a deeper look.

As nouns the difference between motivation and ambition is that motivation is willingness of action especially in behavior while ambition is eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one’s self from other people.

As a verb ambition is to seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

Now, Motivation is an important ingredient for success. It is the power that kindles the fire to do things and to act, and has much to do with ambition and desire. In fact, without ambition and desire there is no motivation. When motivation is strong, there is ambition, and when there is strong ambition there is motivation. This is a yin and yang relationship.

Often, people get motivated to do something, learn something, accomplish something, but this motivation is too often short lived and evaporates after a little while.

How do you feel after reading something that inspires you, or listening to a great speaker that awakens your ambition to succeed? You feel the desire to experience or accomplish what you have read or seen. You feel a sense of euphoria and happiness, but too often, these feelings go away on the same day or the next one.

Why does this happen?

• Because you don’t really want to achieve what you have read or seen.
• You are too busy and forget about it.
• It requires too much effort.
• It requires that you make certain changes in your life.
• It takes time to accomplish goals.

If you think about it, you will come up with many more reasons why you lose your desire and motivation.

To keep the fire of motivation, you need to strengthen your desire, have faith in yourself, and be willing to work toward accomplishing your goals. You need to keep giving fuel to the fire of desire and ambition in order to keep your motivation alive.

Don’t be afraid of effort or failure. The road is often bumpy and you might fall or fail, but keep getting up with a smile on your face, and with the faith and belief that you can achieve your goal. Never say ‘I can’t’, always say ‘I can’.

Imagine your motivation being a bicycle, while the ambition is the pedaling of the bicycle. After you pedal, you can still coast and be motivated to action. But, at some point, unless you start to pedal the bike again, you will fall over. The best way to keep “pedaling” is to keep yourself surrounded with positives things to influence you. The books you read and those you regularly associate with are the most important factors. On a daily basis, I read love to read, and listen to audios. This is my pedaling, which keeps my bike moving, even when my life is going up a big hill.

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