Daring dreams

I have discussed with you all our means of using addiction as a way of hiding from our inner selves. There, I mentioned the other three agents: ambition, arrogance, and anxiety. In this post, I will connect dreams to ambitions and how they act as a hiding niche for me and you. 

Let me start this discussion by distinguishing between dream and ambition. Dreams, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, are a strongly desired goal or purpose. So we dream to become something; we dream to achieve a goal; we dream to be big. This is the first stage of creativity or achievement. A dream alone cannot become real. We need to take intentional actions in the direction of fulfilling our dreams, and then only we can see it happen. Terri Kozlowaski sums it up like this:

Dream + Ambition = Reality

There is no harm in dreaming big. In fact, sometimes we should dream big to achieve big. The real game begins when we choose the kind of ambition to achieve it. Bandura (1993), a Canadian-American psychologist, defines it as an individual's own beliefs about their ability to sway the level of their performance and the affairs that matter a lot. Here I will quote Farshad Asl's words:

"When your ambition is greater than your fear, your life will get bigger than your dream."

This is the power of ambition. It helps us rise above our fears to achieve our dreams. We all need this kind of ambition to succeed, to move ahead, and to become something our eyes have dreamed of. 

As I was exploring this topic, I came across another kind of ambition in whose trap I had lived for ages. This is called blind ambition. This is the ambition that kills our inner self in order to feed its own madness to achieve at any cost. This kind of ambition only sees oneself and its dream as the prize; nothing else comes in between them. We are human beings; we have emotions; we have our values and our morals, which we need to build our own identity. These all define us, and we cannot ignore their roles in our lives. Blinded ambition makes us slaves to it, and we lose our power to be our own selves. We just act like puppets to feed the greed of ambition. 

This greed is being checked by 

1) Being connected with our emotions. 

When we create a balance between our emotions and others and also consider how our actions are influencing others emotions, we will never submit to this blind ambition.

2) Regularly evaluating our actions with our values and morals

Is what I am doing in accordance with my values and moral principles? If not, what is going wrong? Seeking answers to these questions connects us to our roots as good human beings, which we have learned throughout our lives. This also saves us from cognitive dissonance and, hence, helps us make good decisions. 

3) Being human

There is nothing above humankind. If we respect and nurture our fellow people and retain our humane behavior, no other thing can rule us but our dedication to the human race. 

I had a lot of interest in embroidery, painting, instrumental playing, and cooking, but I was not at all good at any of these things until my high school days. This was because I had fed in my brain to be a very good student (high achiever in marks in my school).  So, I would invest all my time only to make myself the best in this field. If someone told me to do the dishes at this moment, I would frawn and shout because my target time would be disbalanced. I lost most of my time chasing only my marks. My friends became good cooks, but I was busy gathering marks. My sister became a beautiful embroiderer and craftswoman while I was busy collecting marks. I did score good marks, but I missed quite a few. I did not have this realization. I was just ambitious to get high-paying jobs, etc. I did not get this because I chose to stick to my values, not bribe, and try my best. I failed. This failure showed me how blindly I was chasing my ambition, forgetting that there are many other segments of life on which we also need to focus and maintain a balance. This blind ambition made me highly impatient and, hence, anxious too. When I failed and struggled to achieve small, relevant goals, then I realized how wrong I was. This lesson was very necessary for me; otherwise, I could not make my life worthier. 

I will close this discussion with a Huge Mackay quote.

"In our surrender to self-serving ambition, we hide from the truth about our inadequacies."

 

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