Contentment and Ambition

Ambition.  

So many of us are chasing something we don’t already have.  It’s fun.  It’s exciting.  It’s interesting.

My kids are like this; so ambition starts young.

We look around at what we have and we say, “well, I’ve got this, and I’ve got this…but I really want that and that”

I see a potential problem with ambition, and that’s when we forget about ‘this’ and only want ‘that’.  We risk ‘this’ so that we can get ‘that’.  It may pay off, and we may end up with both ‘this’ and ‘that’…but we could end up with nothing.

In relation to kids and family, ‘this’ is often defined as ‘time with kids’ and ‘that’ is defined as ‘more money’.  It’s a real pity if we risk ‘time with kids’ for ‘more money’, especially if we don’t end up with either.

Of course, some circumstances dictate that we give up time with could spend with our kids in order to earn or create more money.  But I’m not talking about those circumstances in this post – I’m talking about ambition for ‘more’.

I’ve risked ‘this’ for ‘that’.  I’ve given up some time with my kids for more money – and look at money…gone in a puff.  Gone before you can say “Wall St Pain”.

I guess it’s important to work out which bits of ‘this’ (the things you’ve already got), just aren’t worth sacrificing for ‘that’ (the things you want).  

It’s better to end up still having ‘this and this’, than to chase after ‘that and that’ and end up with neither ‘this nor that’.  My risk management protocol isnow  based on the fact that I want ‘this’ and ‘that’.

I guess what this post really touches on is how we live with contentment as well as ambition?  I wonder how we teach our kids about this?

I was talking to my son about being a ‘good sport’; having the ambition to go for ‘first’ but also being content with ‘not being first’.  Difficult to have these two ideas bouncing around in a child’s mind – and an adult’s for that matter.  

I’m off to listen to some Jack Johnson with my kids before bed.

Warmly,

Nic

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