Free Your Ambitious Mind

It's times like these I wish I had a real following, because as much as I use this outlet as a place to vent out my thoughts on various topics, I'd love for it to be a forum for the creation of positive discussion. Ah well, maybe one day.

I've been trying to wrap my head around something new lately and I don't believe I'm doing very well with it. The idea is, as stated in today's title, freeing myself from my ambitious mind. I think I'm struggling with it conceptually as well as practically. How do we free ourselves of ambition and continue to do anything? Does the definition of ambition here carry with it an alternate definition? Well, I guess let's start by looking it up!

am-bi-tious  [am-bish-uhs]
adjective
1. having ambition; eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, power, wealth, a specific goal, etc.
2. showing or caused by ambition.
3. strongly desirous; eager.
4. requiring exceptional effort, ability, etc.

Well, in parts of #1 and all of #3, we can see the negatives created by ambition. Maybe that's the twist my head isn't getting around, that perhaps ambition as a concept has been usurped by more materialistic or impure goals. This one will be particularly difficult for me, and I imagine will continue to be this way, because I simply can't see how you get rid of your goals and not simply turn into a lump on the couch...yet!

Well, let's try and see if we can't get around this. If ambition is the root of our motivation, our desire to obtain X, ambition cannot truly be bad for us, because through our ambition we can further realize our true selves. We frame our being by what we set out to do. So maybe, the error isn't in having ambition, but defining ourselves in the successful pursuit of that ambition? Perhaps our motivations for ambition, the underlying 'why we want what we want' also creates disharmony. I've written on achievement before and about how crucial I feel it is for the human experience. But there, like here, I believe the harm comes not from the act but the intent and value. 

To elaborate, perhaps it is the reasons why we attempt to better ourselves that corrupt our path. If we set out to get a well-paying job in order to have money so that we can make our lives more comfortable, that would be fine. Our being is enhanced by the effort and our lives made better by the fruits of our labor. We only consider what is best for ourselves, and we define what is comfortable, and what we do with that comfort is up to our own discretion. Now, if we set out for the same job in order to have the same money so that we can flaunt our comfortable lifestyle in the faces of others, we've strayed from the path. Now our focus isn't on achieving for the benefits to ourselves, but the benefit to ourselves is viewed in the light of how it grieves someone else. And maybe that's the root of this "Ambitious Mind" that requires freedom from. Ambition is a self-motivated and self-realized beast, sure other people can comment on how accomplished you are or are not, but it should boil down to you. Your ambitions should be your own, and the goals of those ambitions should equally pertain to you.

Each day we need to strive to set out and accomplish what we feel is important to ourselves, and each day we should weigh the success of our endeavors by our own standards, not those imposed by society at large or even close friends and family. Freedom from ambition may actually become freedom from the fear of failure then, and this freedom from fear of failure will allow us greater personal growth. Each day we can look at what was done, not what is left undone or yet to be started. Focus on the steps taken, not on the steps left ahead of us. This fear, this apprehension, attached with ambition, that ambition is something that needs to be proved to and validated by everyone else is what we really need to free ourselves from. There is no true failure to a spirit willing to continue through all opposition, the only failure comes from deciding to give up before we have decided for ourselves that it is the right time to stop.

I think I may be getting a decent grip on this now that I've laid it out in front of me. It's funny how this, like several articles and books I've read, have all started blurring into the same general concept: freedom from fear, live in love. I've also found myself giggling at just how many times I read those same lines in all these different pieces in the voice of Yoda, (Fear is the path to the darkside. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering..) I love Star Wars too, as an aside from this discussion. Just know, while looking up the quote to make sure I got it right, I found this as well:

 "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship." 

which of course is another matter entirely, but again resonates strongly with the things I believe to be true now. Anyway, it is this fear which pollutes us in a very real sense. Fear leads our bodies to stress, an intangible monster of our own imagination which creates literal, physiological response in our bodies. These stress reactions create a bodily state that is more susceptible to negative thoughts because it alters the very chemical states of our brains and bodies. Each successive stress reaction makes the next one that much more likely, and that much more pronounced. Our bodies begin to swim in these chemicals which keep us in this depressed state. Our bodies wear out, our psyche is strained, we get sick and the cycle further propagates.

Fear is our true enemy here, the root of our problems. Only through Love can we overcome fear, but sadly in this world, in our societies, Love is not the thing it should be. We treat Love as a precious commodity (which it is), something so rare it may never be obtained by some of us (which it is not!!). We attribute Love to being attached to material expression to further cheapen its immense, soulful quality. We are taught that you can only Love so many people in so many specific ways. We are cultured away from Love, but everyday we're reminded of what we should fear. To keep the quote train going: 

"If you're free you'll never see the walls, 

If your head is clear you'll never free fall, 

If you're right you'll never fear the wrong, 

If your head is high you'll never fear at all."  

Exploder by Audioslave

We are taught to limit things: to limit ourselves and our relationships; to limit what we feel and why we feel it. We are taught that the very best thing we can experience, the absolute best of Humanity, Love, is something rare. Love is as omnipresent as the air we breathe, as the water in our bodies. It starts with loving yourself, knowing yourself. Through that we can love and know each other. In this state of being, we no longer have to worry about overcoming ambition, fear, hate, greed, envy, whatever...we'll have already freed ourselves from these things.

-M

P.S. I apologize for the formatting errors throughout, I can't seem to copy and paste into this without it screwing everything up.