No doubt you will have noticed, if you work in anything approaching a corporate environment – or ever have – that those at the top are not necessarily the ones with the top abilities. It’s that same the world over. Rarely are those who are in charge the ones who know the most, or have the most talent. This is because, quite simply, ambition trumps ability. Put another way, if you have the ambition to become a writer, and you put all of your energies into that, you are much more likely to succeed than someone with bags of talent, but little ambition. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So how does this help us, knowing that?
We can help ourselves succeed by focusing our attentions on becoming more ambitious, rather than more talented, per se. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that we all sack off what we’re good at and start at the wrong end of carpentry, nor am I suggesting that it’s a good thing to be at the top of a ladder you’re no good at (after all, the true leaders in their field have both ambition and ability), but if you’re struggling to get something underway, maybe it’s not a lack of talent that’s causing it. Maybe try asking yourself whether you have the ambition for this task. If you’re putting off starting, or not promoting yourself, or sabotaging your efforts, or just generally taking your foot off the pedal when you should be pushing hard, it could be a lack of ambition.
So, you’ve established you’ve got the ability; how do you develop the ambition? Visualise it. Whether that’s daydreaming for 10 minutes each night / morning, or making yourself a full-blown vision board, having a clear picture of what you’re aiming towards helps hugely. Set yourself time-limited goals. The idea of SMART targets might be unfashionable, but the principles are sound, and the time-limited aspect of the goals are really important. If you’ve set yourself the goal of a promotion at work, decide when you want to achieve it by, and write it down. Refer back to it regularly. Once you know that you want that raise within, say, two years, you can make yourself a series of interim goals – perhaps there are industry-standard qualifications you’ll need, or a piece of networking it would be wise to undertake.
While we’re on the subject, once you’ve made yourself a series of goals, it’s really important to stick to them. Don’t rely on being motivated. Write out your goals for as short a time period as you can get away with – monthly, weekly, even daily – and do them like your life depends on it (your quality of life just might!). If you wait to be motivated, you’ll find yourself snoozing your alarm for the third time on Thursday morning as the rain hits the window. If you focus on discipline, you’ll get out of bed on time regardless of the day (or weather) and do what needs doing. Wiser people than me might have determined how many times something needs to be repeated in order for it to be made a habit, but I think that the actual number is largely irrelevant. What matters is that it works for you.
So, if you’re feeling stuck – creatively, work-wise, whatever – try upping your ambition for yourself. You may have the talent, but if you’re not prepared to unleash it on the world with a fury, it will never be noticed fully. And work on developing your discipline muscles, rather than talking about how motivated you feel. Motivation ebbs and flows, discipline is a skills for life.
Ambition is greater than ability.
Discipline is greater than motivation.
Centred 
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