There is a good amount of people who dream of the good life each day. They imagine themselves as having an abundance of wealth and all their troubles and worries being gone. However, money is not a fix for every problem you will have in your life. Money might help you cover up any pain with material goods and exotic excursions, but it will not give you the life you dream of. Money is a tool like anything else. It can be used for much good, or it can be used incorrectly and cause a mess. With that said, do you still want a lucky break where all your money woes are forgotten? I would anticipate that many people would say they want the money. However, money is not what they want. In this week’s blog, I will be speaking about ambition and how it will help you get the life of your dreams.

Money is just one factor in the equation to get the life a person truly desires. When I ask people what they want in life, they are quick to tell me all the grandiose things they wish for. They want a big house, a large sum of money in their bank accounts, and a house larger than life. Well, I believe that having those dreams and aspirations of reaching a place like that in your life is a good thing to have. However, the idea behind having it should represent something different. Most people believe if they can achieve this sort of great wealth in their life, they will be happy. They will not have any more trouble because they have all the money they could ever need. Well, as I said before, money is not the answer to all our wants and desires in life. The life many people tend to want comes through a person’s ambitions.

Ambition is a strong desire to achieve. That desire can be directed at almost anything, but it requires hard work to attain. There is a saying, “Anything worth having doesn’t come easy.” This is where ambition comes into play. If a person is ambitious they have the intention of doing whatever it takes to achieve success. You have to have an eagerness to be more than you are right now to achieve the great things in life. Working hard might have been enough in the past, but now you have to work even harder to achieve your dreams. This is not because there is a lack of success or money in the world, but as the years have gone by, our dreams seem to have gotten bigger. The workload now needed for that success is tenfold. Are you ready to work?

I remember I took a retired General Motors Executive out for lunch a few years back. (For the sake of the story and privacy, I will call this executive, Harry.) We spoke about our lives and all of our accomplishments. At the time, I was pursuing a different venture, and it felt like I was going against my purpose in life. Harry reminded me that day of what he saw in me. We spoke for over two hours, and he gave me some great advice to achieve great success in life. One of the things I think about often is when he asked me if I was willing to work harder than I have ever worked in my entire life. I remember sitting there thinking that I was already working hard. I was putting in the hours and time, but I was lacking the results. He continued and told me that to achieve the success I wanted I would have to go after my purpose and not let it go. I would have to be willing to work harder than I already was to attain it. That conversation stoked a huge spark of ambition in my life, and I am forever grateful to Harry.

Looking back at certain memories like that is a huge boost in my desire to work hard. The truth back then, when Harry and I were having lunch, is that I was not working my hardest. I would sleep in late, skip the gym, play video games for endless hours, and go out with friends for no specific reason. All of those things did not serve me in the advancement of my life. I knew what I wanted, but I neglected to do the work. Instead, I would sit on the sidelines and dream of my best life, with the same habits and actions that did not take me the distance I needed to go. I needed more than just enough and OK. I wanted more out of my life, and tapping into my ambitions was the fuel needed to get me there.

I started to dream about success like it was waiting for me around the corner. Before speaking with Harry, my dreams were idle thoughts and feel-good feelings. It was after I met him did I start to apply meaningful action toward my dreams. My mind started to evolve, and the things I thought about now were in line with what I wanted to attain. I had to get rid of all the fear and doubt in my mind that was holding me back and start to believe I could achieve great things. I had to believe my dreams could come true and that I was the person who would grant those wishes. There was no more waiting for a genie to grant me three wishes to get to my best life. I was an endless amount of unfulfilled wishes. I learned that to have a dream come true would require focused ambition.

When people think about success, it is almost a fantasy for them. They would like to have it, but there is a voice in their mind telling them that they are unable to get it. These people have a limiting mindset that treats success as something for a select few and the very lucky. I believe everyone can achieve great success in their life. To get it, you have to yearn for success as much as you want to be comfortable. You have to want it more than you want to breathe, eat/drink, have sex, or sleep. There has to be an urgency that puts fuel on the fire to get to your success. With all that being said, we are faced with the reality of the work we have to put in. Once you set your goal, then it is up to you to get there. The question is, how does one achieve the amount of ambition needed for success?

There is no secret formula for success. However, some habits can be discerned from looking at people who have made great strides in their life. Simply looking at their habits, you can determine their level of ambition towards their goal. People who have started from nothing and grown into something huge are a testament that we can do the same. You must take time to investigate people who have achieved the heights you want to reach also. If it is something that no one has ever done before, then it is up to you to keep the faith and believe it is possible. You must work harder than everyone around you. You do not have the luxury of taking a break when you have so much to accomplish. Do not be the person who sits and wonders why their life is not amazing. Instead, be the person that is a role model for others to base their life on you.

I started to find my ambition when I found myself unsatisfied with how my life was going. I was not satisfied with my work, my relationships, and my mindset. I wanted more, and I knew that I had to make some serious changes, fast! I am happy to announce that the dreams and ambitions I created years back are starting to take bloom. If I continue to nurture my dreams and ambitions, then one day, I will reach a place that only my dreams could reach before. I was the deciding factor if my dreams would come true. I decided to find out what I wanted to do and then be crazy enough to go against all the odds and all the negativity to see my dreams start to become more vivid/real. It was great to fantasize, but it feels even better to achieve those dreams.

The desire for great success does not have to be in the form of money. Once I let go of my desire for money and started to go after my most ambitious thoughts and goals, my life started to change. If you can find what you love to do, then you will enjoy every new day. You will need to have a huge amount of discipline to reach the success you want in your life. You have to put in more effort than you think it will take right now. You have to have some sort of belief in what you are doing to see the results you want. They say if you can dream it, you can achieve it. If you can find a way to strengthen your will/ambitions towards something, then that will be the foundation for your life and dreams.

Until then,

Michael Rearden

CEO of Reven LLC.