Today is a little bit different. I’m starting the A to Z Challenge, in which I blog through the entire alphabet in the month of April. It will be interesting to see whether I can complete this. There are about 1700 other bloggers joining me.
Today is brought to you by the letter A. I wanted to blog about ambition last night, but I was busy working on a flash fiction piece, and then my wonderful, beautiful daughter would not go to sleep.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the definitions of ambition is a desire to achieve a particular end. Ambition is the key to drive. My son is ambitious at gymnastics. He pushes himself. He doesn’t accept failure. He keeps going, even when the going gets tough, or even when it’s an event he doesn’t like. My ambition (defined as: a particular goal of aim) is to become a successful author.
Sometimes, ambition doesn’t seem like enough though. So many things can get in the way of success, including real life, day jobs, attitude, mental blocks, and that little “p” word, procrastination. I am the queen of procrastinating when I don’t want to do something. And all it does is hurt me. Procrastination takes my ambition, crumbles it up, and it throws it in the toilet. My ambition this week is to finish editing “The Devil Within,” so I can send it back to my editor. And it’s slow going, because I don’t really want to do it! I lack ambition when it comes to editing. I have plenty of ambition when it comes to writing, but that’s only part of the story. It’s sort of like, you can’t take the good without the bad. I need to train my mind to believe that in order to be a successful published author, I must edit. So this week, I’m striving to be an ambitious editor–we’ll see where it gets me.
Ambition – this was a great way to kick off your A to Z posts! I think ambition can be good or bad… it can drive us to succeed, but can also interfere with what’s most important in life. As long as we keep things in perspective, I think we could all use a healthy dose of this!
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Thanks John Mark. I agree. It’s about finding the right balance, in my opinion.
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I agree with John Mark–“ambition” is the perfect word to kick off this challenge. I’m terrible with procrastinating as well, and my goal for the month (besides posting for the A to Z challenge) is to write an epilogue for my first novel and revise it. I have ambitions of being a prolific novelist, but I’m not going to get anywhere if I don’t see the process through from start to finish at least once! Good luck!
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Jax–I am the same. I finally creating deadlines and goals for myself, and it has helped!
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Hi, Lauren! Visiting from the Challenge and from the Writer’s Retreat blog. Thanks for coming by today.
Good luck on your journey! Ambition can be a potent ally.
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Hi Catherine! Glad to see you here. I’m excited for this journey.
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Agreeing with everyone else, ambition is a great way to start off the challenge!
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Thanks! And thanks for telling me about the challenge too.
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Ambition is a great thing but I hear you – I always get side-tracked by procrastination. And excuses. There always seems to be other priorities with the kids. Best of luck with the challenge!
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Thanks Judi. You’re right. Tonight, it’s watching “American Horror Story.” Hey, that’s an “A” too! 🙂
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A-Z is quite the ambitious Challenge. Best of luck on your journey. I will stopping back by to see your progress.
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Thanks Scarlet!
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The neat thing is …your ambition will carry you through your procrastination–and that’s a good thing. We’re big procrastinators in my family also, but wanting something helps! Are there really 1700 of us? Wow!
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More like over 1800 now, Helen! Thanks, and I hope it does.
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I started mine with ambition as well. Good luck to you! 🙂
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Great minds think alike, and all that jazz!
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Ambition, when kept under control, is good because it pushes us forward! Problems arise when the ambition brings people to become mean in order to succeed! Nice post!
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Thanks! There is such a thing as being too ambitious. I’m not there yet–ha!
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Great start for the A-Z Challenge. “The Devil within” sounds interesting from the title alone.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing. My husband is a writer too, he’s at: https://humanrescue.wordpress.com. He has some vegan/health related posts and others.
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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are able finish your editing soon!
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