Ambition is often touted as a good thing, so it’s hard to think that too much ambition would be a problem.
But can you ever be too ambitious?
The answer is yes.
Ambition in excess is not a healthy state. In fact, the great philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas goes so far as to call it a vice.
It is right for us to seek to develop our skills and talents to the fullest of our ability and receive appropriate recognition and reward for that.
But if you take ambition too far you fall into the trap of seeking the recognition and reward for their own sake rather than having them flow as the natural result of your good work and achievements.
How Being Too Ambitious Becomes A Problem
1. You Become Too Attached To Outcomes
It is good to challenge yourself and undertake difficult endeavours that push you out of your comfort zone. It is right to seek success in everything you do.
When you do that with humility, you know that the outcome might not always go your way. But you give it your all anyway.
When you become overly ambitious, the outcome often becomes more important than the process.
You may cut corners, compromise your integrity or trample over others to get the result you want. You become greedy.
2. Your Desires Begin To Outweigh Your Abilities
Having aspirational goals that are an appropriate challenge for your ability is a good thing.
Downplaying your skills and talents out of false humility is no good to you or to society.
However, when you aspire to achievements far beyond your abilities you enter the territory of being too ambitious.
It’s not that what you are aiming for is wrong. But if it is something too unrealistic then you tend to become too attached to the outcome and not on the development of your character and abilities.
You focus on the destination rather than the journey.
3. You Can Make Others Resentful
Everyone knows someone who is overly ambitious and really annoying.
The problem with too much ambition is that others feel crowded out by your aspiration.
If you are too attached to outcomes instead of focusing on the process you may not think twice about disadvantaging someone else in order to further your own agenda.
When you are a humble team player you can aim for your goals while at the same time allowing others to aim for theirs and celebrating their success.
4. It Clouds Your Judgement
Ambition in excess can make you single minded to the point where you lose perspective.
You may not see how your actions are affecting others, or even affecting yourself.
Your goal can become so all consuming that it is impossible to step back, take stock and smell the roses.
5. You Seek Honour For Its Own Sake
When you achieve great things, it is natural that recognition and rewards will flow. These are natural fruits of a job well done. Accepting recognition and reward with humility is the right thing to do.
However, you when focus on the recognition and the rewards for their own sake you are putting the cart before the horse. The desire for glory becomes strong and humility disappears. This is where too much ambition becomes a problem.
You should seek greatness but you should not seek honour. Honour will come on its own.
Replace Ambition With Magnanimity
If too much ambition is a bad thing then what can you do instead?
You could try to moderate your ambition but that is a difficult thing. Too much ambition can lead to pride but too little ambition can lead to sloth, laziness and mediocrity. These are equally bad.
Instead, you could focus on the little known virtue of magnanimity.
It’s similar to ambition, but instead of focusing on the outcome and doing it for selfish reasons, the magnanimous person focuses on achieving greatness in a humble manner and at the service of others.
Magnanimity means “greatness of soul” and it means challenging yourself to be great by developing your abilities and character.
It means giving your best in everything that you do without knowing where it will take you and being comfortable in letting go of control.
If you are somebody who has a desire for greatness but is uncomfortable with the idea of just trying to gain status and recognition to please others than magnanimity is for you.
You will still do amazing things but you will be much more at peace with yourself on the journey.
Conclusion
Yes it is easily possible to be too ambitious.
You know you are too ambitious if you seek success for honour and the approval of others, rather than seeking success out of a desire to contribute the best of your skills and talents to society.
You become too attached to the outcome rather than the process and you seek achievements that outweigh your abilities.
The rightly ordered alternative to ambition is magnanimity or “greatness of soul.”
It is when you aspire for greatness in proportion to your talents, with humility and care for others.
