​Ambition and Motivation combine to create success!

When ambition and motivation overlap, together their true power can be realized!

And as it turns out, their dictionary definitions refer to each other.  And while the definitions of the words carry little more than an academic approach to the word, what I’m writing about is the emotional value they have to me.  

I have many ambitions.  They are the things I’d like to accomplish.  ambitions are narrow and focused.  To me, ambition is a part of the big picture.  My ambitions are what I hope to do in the future.  While my motivations are rooted mostly in the past.  My motivations come from the core values I’ve developed over the span of my entire life.  Motivations are many, and sometimes vague. ambition gives me direction, but my motivations are what get me going.  When my ambitions and motivations overlap, together they create change and real progress!  

For instance, a successful combination of ambition and motivation for me has been my long running career with the sport of footbag which started in 1983.  I has been playing regularly, and when I turned 40, my ambition was to start practicing everyday, while my motivations were to stay in shape, and to continue to improve in my sport.  On the day of this writing, I’m at 3386 days in a row and still going strong.  Also still in shape, still improving and improvising.

An unfulfilled example is my goal to set up a Not-for-Profit that advocates playing footbag as an activity for kids to have fun with, while passively reducing their weight and their chances of Type II Diabetes.  I have yet to put together the funding, and to commit the time necessary to make it happen.  In this case, my motivations are in place, but the ambition to start into action isn’t there.  So nothing happens beyond talking about it.  Actually, with the help of my wife and son, we are able to reach out to thousands of Chicagoan's each year.  We host an annual booth at WGN TV's Back-To-School fair and many other events each year.  Please support our long-time sponsor Dragonfly Footbags who have donated many hundreds of footbags so that kids in Chicago can not only have their first footbag experience, but take one home with them and practice to get better!

My not for profit is so far unfulfilled, partly because my stated ambitions and motivations aren't yet complimenting each other.   When my ambitions and motivations are in alignment, there is nothing that can get in my way!