I come from a long line of ambitious people who are
willing to work hard to achieve their goals. For generations, we have equated
happiness with the acquisition of wealth, power, and honor. We have always
strived to be better and to have more. We have realized that the desire for
more money is considered crass. Thus we emphasize the value of higher
education--which is an honorable yet indirect path to getting richer, having a
higher status, and thus more power and influence. We imprint these values onto
our children and set high standards of achievement--for their success is
directly linked to our honor. A lack of ambition is seen as a major character
flaw. Those who are indifferent towards wealth and power are considered lazy.
While steeped in this culture of ambition, I have
also witnessed the adverse effects of this trait. Most of us are willing to
sacrifice our leisure time and immediate pleasures to achieve our goals.
However, some of us go further--offering up our health, our marriages, and time
with our children, on the altar of ambition. And what does it get us but
dissatisfaction? The more we strive, the more discontent we seem to be. There
is always a bigger dream to chase--a higher level of education, a bigger job
promotion, a more luxurious house, newer high-tech gadgets to buy, a higher
rung of the social ladder to climb. Our achievements never seem to be enough.
What if our aspirations were different? What if,
instead of wealth, power and honor--we pursued peace and contentment? What if
our goals extended beyond the advancement of our family’s welfare to that of
humanity as a whole?
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