Can Spirituality And Ambition Coexist?

"To be successful you need the desire to be successful. Ambition can be a dirty word, but it's pretty much more important than anything."

- Natalie Portman

In a world saturated by positive thinking and spiritual gurus, religious dogmas, moms and dads and many threatened by others' success, the word ambition has gotten a bad rap. In fact, the word Ego has become synonymous with words like Devil, Hate, Bad, Wrong and the like. Our aversion and misunderstanding of ambition and the ego is leading to a disturbance in The Force.

I think it's vastly important to work on yourself everyday. My mom always told me that no matter how old I get I will always be a student of life, and she is 100 percent right. But what I've been noticing a lot lately is that in our endeavor to better ourselves, to positively think our way into a better life and to live up to our Highest Potentials we've gotten a little sidetracked.

Carl Jung said it best, "Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious."

So why do so many on The Path have an aversion to Ambition and Ego? It's common to say that EGO stands for "Edging God Out", but I wholeheartedly disagree. Ambition is seen as the doom of enlightenment, a trait reserved for politicians, bankers and oil tycoons. But our creator (insert said deity name here), created us with an ego and with ambitions. So the subtext of demonizing these parts of ourselves is to say that there is a flaw in our design.

I don't think so. I think the human being is a perfect creation. But as the driver of your own life, it's vital that you learn how to steer yourself properly.

Per Merriam-Webster, ambition can be defined as "an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power"." So, if you're like me and on The Path you might take a first glace at this and think, "no, that's NOT me!" But I say look a little closer.

All of life is a form of managing our power. If we don't manage our power properly we end up in toxic relationships, ill health, poverty and even worse -- living in a constant state of fear.

But if we manage our power and step into our greatness (which Marianne Williamson reminded us is our "birthright"), then on some level there is a desire and almost need for us to have power, rank and fame in our lives.

I think we need to look deeper at ambition and come out and admit that we have goals, desires and things we want in our lives. It's true we live in an abundant universe and that we ourselves are abundant, so knowing this, its only natural for us to want to experience abundance in our lives.

Giving up everything and dedicating your life to a certain monastic way of life might be one way to find this inner abundance, but this article isn't for those people. This article is for the house holders of the world, whose job it is to live in the world, but not be of it.

For us, we all have ambitions -- for love, a home, a family, a successful career, enough money to not just survive, but THRIVE! These desires are completely natural, okay and are something that you should have, even if you are on a spiritual path.

Each and every one of us was born with a seed, a gift, a potential within us. We were each born with this gift in our heart of hearts and it's our strong desire to birth this gift from our heart, give it full expression, have it be seen and recognized by others and to be compensated for this gift. Each of us knows that this is the life we really should be living.

The ambition of our hearts is calling us to express it. We need an ego to form an identity and to manifest our ideas. The trick is to not let the tail wag the dog. When the Ego is a Servant of the Heart, THEN there will be balance, prosperity and proper manifestation.

When we finally accept our ambitions as gifts from beyond and claim our right to manifest these ambitions that's when the real magic happens. What would have happened if your role models hadn't had ambition on some level? They would have never manifested and been passive observers of life.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a strong desire to express yourself, to be validated from it by your peers and to have enough power in your life to manifest abundance.

If we can take Carl Jung's advice and look into our darkness, release our judgments of these sides of ourselves and give them expression life will finally be in balance. Embrace the ambitions of your heart, give yourself permission to shine, love your Ego and watch what happens!

 

Follow Mastin Kipp on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheDailyLove

Comments

[KeepItLight]

09:12 PM on 03/08/2010

I think there are two distinct points here. It is one thing to have certain talents, abilities, and/or a vision of how far your potential can take you, and then to work, sometimes tirelessly, to develop these qualities and fulfill that vision. In the process you can become successful and be rewarded with fame, money, etc. You can call this ambition, but the case can also be made that we all have a responsibility to ourselves to develop our potential to its full maximum, which is a deeply rewarding experience. This is different from someone that desires (lusts after) fame and money and tries through various contrivances to attain these elements. The difference is that the first example involves merits and aspiration, with the end result being something of value, (with fame and money being byproducts). In the latter example, money and fame are the goals, and the purpose is to aggrandize the self, with little, if any, regard to any questions of value and merit. Just my 2 cents, I have no background on this issue other than general observations in life.

[Debra Condren]

08:30 PM on 03/08/2010

Consider this Webster’s definition of ambition: "Energy, interest, passion in professional activity."

…and these definitions of ambitious:

"Wishing to rise (mentally or spiritually) to a higher level or plane"

"Aggressive; self-centered"

Having energy and passion for our work and aspiring to develop to a higher level makes for a great life. Yet too often, people equate ambition with: selfish, entitled, jerk.

It's even worse for women, so interesting that you quote Natalie Portman: "Ambition can be a dirty word, but it's pretty much more important than anything."

This is what I discuss in my book, Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word. Without acknowledgment of your ambition, a core part of you goes missing -- the part that can only be fulfilled by pursuing your dreams. But society encourages women to derive our sense of self from being selfless, first and foremost. No wonder so many women drop-kick our dreams.

I've worked with thousands of women. Each fears: if she goes after her dream, she'll be seen -- or she'll regard herself -- as selfish, bitchy, arrogant, a bad partner, rotten mother. It's exactly this fear that has forced many women to leave their dreams and great talents by the roadside.

The real way to have a great life is to see your ambition as part of your value system that you must give equal attention to along with other inviolable priorities. You owe it to yourself -- and the world -- to make the contribution you were born to make.

[ratinacage]

04:23 PM on 03/08/2010

This post assumes a bourgeoise definition of success, and only justifies the current evangelical hypocrisy of handpicking Bible verses to make greed a virtue.

[fairwitness]

04:09 PM on 03/08/2010

"I think the human being is a perfect creation." -- Thank you, Pollyanna. Now please play while the adults discuss serious matters.

Sorry, it's a snarky way of saying that "life will finally be in balance" is a childish fantasy. And while Natalie Portman is a pretty good actor, if that's your source of wisdom, well, no wonder that "on some level there is a desire and almost need for us to have power, rank and fame in our lives" is your guiding principle and " love your ego" is is your mantra.

But, hey, adolescence doesn't need to last forever...