Are you feeling stuck in a rut and wondering what is wrong?
Or are you watching someone close to you struggle as their life passes them by and they do nothing about it?
A lack of ambition is a genuine concern.
Unrestrained ambition where you seek pride and honour for its own sake is a different problem. But having none at all isn’t right either. You are supposed to have a healthy middle ground where you develop ambition and pursue excellence but do so with humility.
It’s called magnanimity,
If you notice these signs of a lack of ambition in yourself, it should be a wake up call.
If you notice them in someone close to you, then they might need a wake up call.
If you notice them in someone that you are thinking about getting close to, then it might give you pause for thought.
1. You Have No Idea What You Want In Life
It is a natural human inclination to have aspirations, goals and dreams. But you can’t set goals if you don’t know what it is that you want.
It’s quite common to be unsure when you haven’t given much thought to it. But with focus and attention you should be able to develop some clarity about what you want.
If you don’t know what you want, it’s because you haven’t put in the work to figure it out.
Here are the signs of somebody who doesn’t know what they want:
- You have no answer when someone asks where you see yourself in 5 years
- You reject the idea of planning for the future
- You feel like your life lacks purpose
2. You Have No Goals and No Plan For The Future
Ambitious people know what they want in life. So they set goals and plan for the future.
Unambitious people don’t know what they want, so they have no goals and they don’t plan. They convince themselves that they are better than those ambitious people, because they live for the moment.
Living for the moment sounds romantic but actually it reveals a lack of ambition and a lack of maturity.
Sacrifices today pay dividends tomorrow, but only if you have something to sacrifice for.
The signs of someone without goals are very clear:
- There are no short term goals
- There are no long term goals
- There is a rejection of the very concept of setting goals
3. You Settle For Mediocrity
It is a healthy ambition to desire to be and have the best. It doesn’t mean you will always get it, and you must be humble to accept that. But you should aspire to the best and pursue excellence. After all, what is the point otherwise?
If you lack ambition, a sure sign is that you will settle for less than the best. In fact you will settle for mediocre. After all, if you don’t have ambition, you never really wanted it at all right?
This is a lie that pusillanimous people tell themselves to make themselves feel better. Actually, you can be ambitious and happy.
Here are the signs of someone who settles for mediocrity:
- You settle for a comfortable job that no longer challenges you
- You avoid opportunities that might be difficult but have opportunities for growth
- You resist change of any kind
- You are complacent and prefer to stay in your comfort zone
4. You Seek Motivation And External Inspiration
Are you a bit too obsessed with finding motivation?
Do you doom scroll through motivation hacks, hoping you will find the silver bullet?
The reason you seek motivation is because you don’t have it.
It’s great to get a boost from external inspiration from time to time. But relying on it means you don’t have the internal drive.
Successful people know that motivation is fleeting. It comes and goes and it is not something that should be relied upon. They know that it is more important to show up and do the work regardless of how you are feeling. They build habits and systems to keep them on track.
Here are the signs that you rely too much on external motivation:
- You frequently need to watch motivation videos
- You read a lot of self help books, but don’t take action
- You are always waiting for the perfect moment of inspiration
5. You Have Disordered Priorities
When you reach a certain stage of maturity you have to get your priorities straight. Having a healthy ambition is not just about setting goals, it is about discerning what is truly important and prioritising that.
The details might differ from person to person but generally priorities go in this sort of order:
- Faith
- Family
- Job
- Leisure
The unambitious see this as restrictive. They see it as curtailing their freedom and increasing their obligations.
But the ambitious know that you can’t just live for the day with no thought of the future. You have to sort out your priorities and give your time and attention to the important things in life.
You have to give and you have to serve.
If you prioritise personal leisure over self-improvement or service to others in your life, then it is a sure sign that you have little sense of ambition.
Here are the signs of disordered priorities:
- Leisure and personal time always comes above service to others
- Short term gratification is more important than long term aspirations
6. You Feel Trapped But Blame Others And Take No Action
Sometimes you get stuck in a rut in life. Or sometimes you haven’t achieved the success that you had hoped for.
It’s okay.
But the question is what are you going to do about it?
You have two choices, you can either take responsibility or you can blame others.
Taking responsibility is the mature but more difficult option. Blaming others is the quick fix but ultimately destructive option.
Wise people know that it is futile to abdicate self-responsibility and just claim that you are a victim of circumstance. They know that you have to own your situation and take some action where you have some control.
Sure, circumstances get in the way sometimes and things happen. But ultimately you are in the driver’s seat and you have to drive. You have to set the direction and take action to get moving.
If you feel trapped you have to be the one to make a change.
Instead the unambitious stay trapped. They have no sense of ownership and no drive to change.
While they will never admit it, they actually quite like feeling trapped. It gives them an excuse to blame all their problems on.
If you hear this language you lack both ambition and accountability:
- The world is conspiring against me
- It’s not my fault
- There is nothing I can do about it
7. You Procrastinate
Procrastination can afflict us all. But ambitious people will find a way to get things done. They have goals to work towards, after all.
If you are a chronic procrastinator, then the problem is with you. You don’t want anything badly enough and therefore you cannot summon up the willpower to get things done.
These are the signs to watch out for:
- You always put off big tasks and goals, telling yourself you will get to them someday
- Your excuse for everything is “I’m not ready.”
- Deep down you feel afraid and procrastination manifests as an excuse
- You love to talk about your dreams but there is never any action
8. You Don’t Think You Are Good Enough
This is the biggest sign of a lack of ambition and the one that is of most concern. It is both a sign of a lack of ambition and one of its most significant causes.
If you have negative self talk and convince yourself that you will never achieve anything, then it is going to be incredibly difficult to succeed in spite of that rhetoric.
It makes sense, right?
Why would you bother being ambitious if you have convinced yourself you do not have the ability to succeed?
If you tell yourself that you aren’t good enough, I would strongly encourage you to do the work to change this attitude.
You should focus on developing magnanimity and pursuing excellence in proportion to the skills and talents that you have.
Here are the signs of not thinking you are good enough:
- Constant comparison to others
- Telling yourself not to try because you won’t success
- Getting envious of the success of others
- Downplaying your own achievements
- Focusing on worst case scenarios
Do Something About It
If you want to take action to resolve your lack of ambition you need to make an active effort. It won’t just resolve itself on its own.
One suggestion is to use hypnosis to help change your though patterns.
The Personal Motivation Hypnosis pack includes five hypnosis audio files to help you make a change:
- Success Motivation – get your unconscious mindset locked on target.
- Act on Your Ideas – get yourself moving from dream to reality.
- Believe in Yourself – learn new patterns of behaviour that help you develop an unshakeable trust in your abilities.
- Expect The Best- when the going gets tough, you’ll need powerful optimism on your side.
- Think Big – get the confidence to think big and expand your ‘comfort zone’.
Conclusion
Do these signs of a lack of ambition resonate with you?
If so, all is not lost.
But you will need to do a serious amount of self-work to turn things around. The good news is that you can become ambitious even if you are not right now, since ambition can be taught. So you can turn things around.
You need to set some goals, aim for excellence and develop your self-esteem.
You need to become magnanimous.
