The Duality of Gratitude and Ambition

Dear Dreamers, 

You don’t have to hate your current reality to strive for a better one.

Modern culture constantly sends us the message that personal betterment directly results from the detestation of your current circumstances. 

Although that might be the case in extreme cases, I believe that it is the exception, not the rule. We are not all David Goggins, and that is okay.

Rather than hating my reality and doing everything in my power to push it as far away as possible, I have found it much more effective to fully embrace the life I have in front of me—both the positive and the negative aspects of it. 

Instead of finding every little thing I want to pick apart and improve, it helps to find the little things that I am grateful for.

Despite what the media says, being grateful for things in your life doesn’t have to push you toward complacency. 

Gratitude and ambition can go hand in hand with the Duality of Gratitude and Ambition.

The Duality of Gratitude and Ambition occurs when someone is simultaneously grateful for their current circumstances and chasing after a dream that would only improve their reality. 

I often hear the quote:

“Once you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way left to go is up.”

While I don’t argue against this logic, again, I believe it to be the exception. My rule for high achievement is this:

When you love your life as it is, you have more incentive to take risks to enhance it— the worst thing that can happen is you fall back to the life you already love.

Society holds the belief that we work our hardest when we have the least to lose. 

Our fascination with rags-to-riches personal journeys has morphed the common ideology of success into one expectant of the Cinderella story, which is fine, but we have come up with all the wrong reasons for why those people find success.

Cinderella didn’t become a princess because she hated her life before— Although she lived with a horrible family and was treated like a servant in her own house, she found joy in her daily tasks. It was this joy and this ability to persevere that helped her eventually make her life even better.

To sum up my argument, I believe that it is wrong to assume people are successful because of their previous discontentment and that it is much more effective to find joy in what you have before searching for more. If you don’t, what is going to stop you from starting on a never-ending hamster wheel of personal development where you never enjoy the fruits of your labor?

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“Delayed gratification in the extreme results in no gratification.” 

– Bill Perkins

The Grateful Podcast:

I have a podcast where I interview people much smarter and more qualified than me talking about how you can live a more purposeful life full of gratitude and ambition. 

I release episodes every Monday where I go over a lesson I’ve recently learned.

Every other Wednesday I release an episode with a very cool guest. 

You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or find the video version on YouTube.

Coaching:

If you’re ready to take action and need guidance, I’d love to help. 

I have limited space available so if you’re interested, book a free 15-minute call with me to discuss your dreams and how to start making them happen. 

Go make this week rock. Thank you so much for reading this; I’ll see you next week.

With love,

Jack