How do you foster ambition?

[etalns]

I'm sure that seems like an odd question, but it is invariably one that we all wish to know the answer to!

Those friday nights after a hard week of work, how do you motivate yourself to hit the library to prepare for your exam the coming monday?

I have found that visualization works quite well for me. Not visualizing succeeding on that particular exam, but succeeding in life in general. Envisioning what my life will be like if I end up being a cashier, or some other monotonous job which offers little or no satisfaction or challenge in life.

 

I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: SampSon
I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

Wouldn't you agree there is a distinction between "what you have to do," and "what you should do"? Getting a 3.8 GPA is obviously superb, but does pure (unfostered) will power motivate you to push that to a 3.9, or a 4.0?

 

[TNM93]

Ambition dies the older you get.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

cohones and a demon-in-the-sack-of-a-wife


or so I've heard...

 

[brigden]

Originally posted by: SampSon
I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

Truly inspiring words... coming from a man with over twenty thousand posts on an Internet hardware forum.

 

[TNM93]

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

Being rich opens up opportunities where ambition is not needed. Therefore, as they say, the world is their oyster. Everyone else has to work their ass off and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

 

[Goosemaster]

seriously though, conscience realization that there is nothing but that which you make of that inherent nothingness is what makes people great, be it though an outlet such as religion or whatever.

knowing that you have some higher purpose, assigned or otherwise, compared with what you currrently have on your plate, allows to you visualize its utter insignificance and its prerequisite nature just as well, making you work that much harder to achieve some semblance, some level, of "significance."


or something like that.....

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: brigden

Originally posted by: SampSon
I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

Truly inspiring words... coming from a man with over twenty thousand posts on an Internet hardware forum.

Hey, they have a politics thread around her somewhere areound here.....


or so I am told

 

[FoBoT]

think about living in a cardboard box behind the dumpster at Arby's for the rest of your life

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
think about living in a cardboard box behind the dumpster at Arby's for the rest of your life

LOFL

such eloquence, such prose

Only you Fobot...

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: TNM93

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

Being rich opens up opportunities where ambition is not needed. Therefore, as they say, the world is their oyster. Everyone else has to work their ass off and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

I disagree. Doesn't being rich foster complacency? What motivation is there to start a business when the money will have negligible benefits to you?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

Being rich opens up opportunities where ambition is not needed. Therefore, as they say, the world is their oyster. Everyone else has to work their ass off and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

I disagree. Doesn't being rich foster complacency? What motivation is there to start a business when the money will have negligible benefits to you?

Because you can.

Wealth is not so much a substitue, but rather a platform that puts you higher on the ladder of inevitability so to speak.

It allows you to achieve things easily in comaprison to the rest of the world. Ambitions is not relative. It is completely independant as is complacency. It is completely based on the nurture principle and how that person is raised.

What ambition will get you being poor, welath + ambition will overshadow immediately in many cases, but thsi is why ambition+ poverty can many times over shadow jsut plain,stagnant welath.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

Being rich opens up opportunities where ambition is not needed. Therefore, as they say, the world is their oyster. Everyone else has to work their ass off and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

I disagree. Doesn't being rich foster complacency? What motivation is there to start a business when the money will have negligible benefits to you?

Because you can.

Wealth is not so much a substitue, but rather a platform that puts you higher on the ladder of inevitability so to speak.

It allows you to achieve things easily in comaprison to the rest of the world. Ambitions is not relative. It is completely independant as is complacency. It is completely based on the nurture principle and how that person is raised.

What ambition will get you being poor, welath + ambition will overshadow immediately in many cases.

The rich might give a handout of $100million, and we might say in a myopic way that they are "great men" blah blah blah....

Well, are we making a distinction between the very rich and the very poor? I agree that someone who is very poor would have a difficult time being successful, the feelings of hopelessness would be insurmountable. But what about an individual who is upper-middle class? The money to go to school, and pursue their dreams; but not enough to be a loaf by day, playboy by night.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: TNM93
Ambition dies the older you get.

Then what accounts for the Reagan's, and Walton's of the world?

Being rich opens up opportunities where ambition is not needed. Therefore, as they say, the world is their oyster. Everyone else has to work their ass off and even that doesn't guarantee anything.

I disagree. Doesn't being rich foster complacency? What motivation is there to start a business when the money will have negligible benefits to you?

Because you can.

Wealth is not so much a substitue, but rather a platform that puts you higher on the ladder of inevitability so to speak.

It allows you to achieve things easily in comaprison to the rest of the world. Ambitions is not relative. It is completely independant as is complacency. It is completely based on the nurture principle and how that person is raised.

What ambition will get you being poor, welath + ambition will overshadow immediately in many cases.

The rich might give a handout of $100million, and we might say in a myopic way that they are "great men" blah blah blah....

Well, are we making a distinction between the very rich and the very poor? I agree that someone who is very poor would have a difficult time being successful, the feelings of hopelessness would be insurmountable. But what about an individual who is upper-middle class? The money to go to school, and pursue their dreams; but not enough to be a loaf by day, playboy by night.

ambition still isn't relative. It is completely independant of ones situation.

That abition, however, is prone to debilitation due to depression and hte other weaknesses of man.

 

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: SampSon
I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

Wouldn't you agree there is a distinction between "what you have to do," and "what you should do"? Getting a 3.8 GPA is obviously superb, but does pure (unfostered) will power motivate you to push that to a 3.9, or a 4.0?

If making a 3.9 or 4.0 gpa what you have to do, then do it and get it done.

Also I do not make the distinction between what I have to do and what I should do. I don't really have to do much in my life. I just have to eat, sleep, poop and pay taxes (if applicable). Everything beyond that is just fluff.

Truly inspiring words... coming from a man with over twenty thousand posts on an Internet hardware forum.

20K posts and still achieving more than most my age.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: SampSon

Originally posted by: Qosis

Originally posted by: SampSon
I just do what I have to do.
Pure will power.

Wouldn't you agree there is a distinction between "what you have to do," and "what you should do"? Getting a 3.8 GPA is obviously superb, but does pure (unfostered) will power motivate you to push that to a 3.9, or a 4.0?

If making a 3.9 or 4.0 gpa what you have to do, then do it and get it done.

Also I do not make the distinction between what I have to do and what I should do. I don't really have to do much in my life. I just have to eat, sleep, poop and pay taxes (if applicable). Everything beyond that is just fluff.

Truly inspiring words... coming from a man with over twenty thousand posts on an Internet hardware forum.

20K posts and still achieving more than most my age.

Well, what if "what you have to do" is get a 3.9 + high 170's on the LSAT? It's a three or four year trek to achieve those goals, just getting it done seems like a pretty unstructured strategy.

 

Well, what if "what you have to do" is get a 3.9 + high 170's on the LSAT? It's a three or four year trek to achieve those goals, just getting it done seems like a pretty unstructured strategy.

Then you do it, at all costs. Keep your focus on the goal and keep on marchin. But if you really don't want to do what you "have to do" at heart, then you won't.

Get drunk too.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: SampSon

Well, what if "what you have to do" is get a 3.9 + high 170's on the LSAT? It's a three or four year trek to achieve those goals, just getting it done seems like a pretty unstructured strategy.

Then you do it, at all costs. Keep your focus on the goal and keep on marchin. But if you really don't want to do what you "have to do" at heart, then you won't.

Get drunk too.

I guess that does make sense. It's just tough when the goal is so far away to work your ass off on a day in and day out basis. Then again, this is just first semester, I have a long way to go!

 

[tyler811]

:beer:

 

[LethalWolfe]

Set attainable short, medium, and long term goals, but you have to be honest enough w/yourself to stick to them. And when you meet those goals reward yourself. For example, when I first moved out to LA my first goal was "get a job." And I made a deal w/myself that I wouldn't hook up my DVD player or Xbox until I'd found a job (I'm a procrastinator and I took purposely took away two of my biggest procrastination tools). After a month I found a job so celebrated in part by wasting a few hours away on playing Halo online.

The hardest part is having the will power to keep yourself honest.


Lethal

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe
Set attainable short, medium, and long term goals, but you have to be honest enough w/yourself to stick to them. And when you meet those goals reward yourself. For example, when I first moved out to LA my first goal was "get a job." And I made a deal w/myself that I wouldn't hook up my DVD player or Xbox until I'd found a job (I'm a procrastinator and I took purposely took away two of my biggest procrastination tools). After a month I found a job so celebrated in part by wasting a few hours away on playing Halo online.

The hardest part is having the will power to keep yourself honest.


Lethal

I couldn't agree more with your last statement. I have schedules for myself on a day to day basis which are pretty strict (30 minutes to an hour of free time per day). By the time 6 PM rolls around I am exhausted from classes and working, and I unfortuantely don't follow my schedule after that! I guess at this point I need to start working towards achieving every single goal I set, regardless of how small or big. Although that may require that I take a more balanced approach, rather than 8 hours of studying, and 4 hours of classes every day of the week and 12 hours of studying on saturday and sunday.

Where to strike that balance has yet to be seen!