happy Sunday - and happy PRIDE!
Ambition. What is is? Why? Who has a say about it? Who defines it? What do you do with it?
A dictionary definition is this:
- A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.
- Desire and determination to achieve success.
Who has the right to determine YOUR ambition? How is it measured?
I have seen many singers who have incredible talent, natural ability, but simply very little ambition. I have also seen many singers with HUGE ambition and very ordinary talent.
Having a strong desire to achieve, and a determination to follow through and claim success is not a "set in stone" "one size fits all" endeavor.
Each of us is responsible for ourselves. No one has the right nor the responsibility to value judge a performer's ambition. An artist's journey is their own. We meet others along the way that help to facilitate the next, give direction, give pause, but ultimately the journey is OUR OWN.
If we remember this, we begin to claim our own ability, our own desire and ambition as to how we hone that ability, claim the craft, claim the responsibility to SELF and to no one else. We begin to see the red flags immediately and the ports of calm that offer us encouragement and fulfillment.
Who am I to determine YOUR ambition? Ambition is personal and it manifests itself in so many different ways. The result of ambition doesn't have to be a tangible achievement that someone else approves of!! Often, an artist discovering the truth of self begins with huge dreams. Then the artist begins to discover the reality of WHO they are, and that fabric stretches to reveal more tangible and specific knowledge, and therefore more fitting to craft, self, evolution of the complete artist. The fabric can then determine a more realistic and clearer focus on where that artist is best served, and where they will be most comfortable. New dreams, new pursuits and new discoveries emerge! More achievable possibilities and perhaps your best destiny begins to reveal itself.
YOUR ambition allows you to SEE these changes and evolutions in your being, and it allows you to journey toward claiming it.
The red flags are simply people feeling they have the right to accuse you of not having enough ambition, of being overly ambitious, and the like.
No one lives your life but you. No one has your talent, your ability, your discovery but YOU. What you do with that is completely up to you. How you develop it is completely up to you. If you choose to develop it is up to you! Nobody can tell you what your ambition will achieve. Only your will and determination to discover does that.
Ambition leads. It does not follow. Where it leads can change. How it leads can change. It morphs in its tangibles but the essence of it remains steadfast.
The intensity of ambition is different in each of us; it reveals in different ways; it is not black or white. Determining a strong sense of self is key to acknowledging how ambition affects us professionally, personally and spiritually. Ambition doesn't just show up in one aspect of our lives! It is there in some way shape or form everywhere. It doesn't need to be the same as someone else. It doesn't have to answer to someone else.
Developing as an artist, and being in the business has many many MANY implications and paths. No one has the right to tell you otherwise. There is no "right" way. There is no "right" formula. There is no "right" amount of ambition to achieve success.
What is success anyway? Again, ambition determines success. YOU determine YOUR successes. They do not have to do with someone's decision for you.
Your ambition.
Your work.
Your choices.
Your successes.
Leave those that throw up the red flags to their own issues.
