The 4 Hidden Costs of Your Ambition That No One Tells You About.

Every choice in life has a cost. Do you know how much you’re paying?

Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash

As a society, we celebrate ambition without really questioning its costs.

As L.M. Montgomery said,

“We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won.”

Every choice in life has a price. You just pay them at different times.

The question then becomes:

Would you rather pay the cost of ambition or the cost of regret?

Ambition for a better tomorrow creates a price to pay today. Laziness today creates a price to pay tomorrow.

But how much does ambition cost?

For my fellow world-beaters, here are the 4 hidden costs of your ambition.

The First Cost Every Ambitious Person Must Pay.

Very few people will understand what you do.

If I had a dollar every time a friend or family member asked me: “so, what exactly do you do again?” I would be a millionaire.

I don’t fit into their usual categories. I am a Medium blogger, podcaster, freelancer, board member, full-time social policy consultant and paid public speaker. Even I struggle to keep up with everything I am doing.

I used to feel embarrassed whenever this happened.

Now I wear it like a badge of honor.

You can’t expect to be exceptional if you’re doing what everyone else is doing.

You can’t create new things by thinking the same way everyone else is thinking.

Being ambitious means thinking and acting differently. Expect to be misunderstood or even mocked.

The Most Painful Cost To Pay.

The only question to ask yourself is, how much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve this success?— Larry Flynt

If few people understand what you do, even fewer will be supporting you on your journey.

Your ambition forces you to climb mountains by yourself. And it can get lonely.

I’ve got close relationships with family and friends but most of what I do is alone. There is only so far people can support you without actually doing the work.

I can never feel completely content going to a bar, drinking my life away, talking to people I don’t like and feeling 100% satisfied that I spent my time right. I go home feeling empty. I would rather be alone.

Sometimes I wish I could be happy living my life like that among the crowd. It would but less rewarding but also less lonely.

If you’re uncomfortable being alone in your journey, you may have to give up a bit of your ambition. It is a sad truth but one I would rather you know now before it is too late.

Nothing Great Comes Without This.

If you want to be balanced, don’t expect to be exceptional.

Being ambitious exposes you to the reality of your goals. Most people won’t achieve anything worthwhile because they are unwilling to suffer in the short term.

I have not met a professional athlete or world-class entrepreneur who had a ‘healthy’ balance between their work or their life. Their obsession with whatever they were doing meant their work was their life.

Elon Musk, Cristiano Ronaldo and Oprah didn’t get enormously successful by focusing on being balanced. They had big goals and endured the necessary sacrifices to make it happen.

I am not advocating for working yourself to the ground. But your ambition quickly blurs the lines between your work and your life.

Let’s not sugarcoat it.

This is the reality of ambition.

You are going to have to sacrifice and work hard. While your friends are out partying, you will be home working and building your business.

How about working smart?

Well, “you can only work smart if you’ve done the hard work first,” writes Sinem Günel. Either way, you’re going to be working hard.

Get Used To Feeling This Way.

In Australia where I live, there is a saying that the tallest poppy gets cut.

We have a cultural aversion to success and ambition.

At its best, it keeps everyone humble and down-to-earth. But at its worst, it becomes toxic for those who want to make meaningful changes to their life.

Your ambition will make others around you uncomfortable. The fact that you’re taking steps to get more out of life will remind some people how lazy or entitled they are. And how much their life sucks.

I used to filter and censor myself when I was with a group of high school friends. I didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable telling them what I was doing. I had big goals and I wasn’t afraid of going after them.

I wanted to talk about starting businesses, interesting ideas, and have meaningful conversations. All they wanted to talk about is how drunk they wanted to get.

I would lower myself just to fit in. But after a while, I felt even lonelier than before. And the worst bit? I still attracted criticism. “You work too hard”, “you care about too many things”, “why do you read so many books?”.

No matter what you do, you’ll attract criticism. The moment you start to be intentional with how you spend your time and energy, people won’t like it. You are no longer in the box that they want to put you in.

“But remember, you will never be criticized by people doing more than you — you will only be criticized by people doing less than you. “— Jari Roomer

Summary:

Ambition does not come with a warning label. There is a price to pay.

Ambition is scary, but so is not living up to your potential.

When you live well below what you are capable of, you know it. There are no objective criteria or standards to compare yourself to. You can just feel it. You will be paying the price of regret with you for your entire life.

I’ve come to the point in my life that I rather live with the pain of ambition than live with the pain of regret.

I would rather come to the length of my life knowing that I challenged myself and tried my best rather than knowing I took the comfortable option.

I’m happy to pay the price of ambition. Are you?

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