Is ambition a bad thing?

Why struggle to be productive if it is counter-productive to do so?

How do you square striving to be productive with a non-materialistic mindset? Surely they are opposing goals. Why bother to maximise your efficiency if the resulting work slowly erodes your long term happiness?

The “resulting work” part is probably the key here. If your ultimate ambition is to work for status and its symbols then becoming ultra-productive could well help you get there quicker, regardless of how it truly effects your sense of self worth.

Llikewise if your ultimate ambition is closer to “just living a good life” then ultra-productivity will filter out the distractions and instead get you there quicker.

So it is not having ambition itself that seems to be the issue. Rather what that ambition is targeting.

The next question is whether a material focus does lead to any kind of damage to the self, or if it is just a different and equally valid life goal. Or whether “just living a good life” is shooting too low and missing out on potential experiences and fulfillment.

After all, some material questions really seem quite innocent:

• Wouldn’t that film look better on a larger TV?

• Wouldn’t we be more comfortable in a bigger car/house/bed?

• Is it wrong to want to travel and see the world?

Well, as usual, there’s a study for that. Bruce Headey examined how competitive vs non-competitive life goals matter to subjective well-being. The study was conducted over 20 years, involving over 12,000 Germans aged 16 and over. It found:

Non-zero sum goals, which include commitment to family, friends and social and political in-volvement, promote life satisfaction. Zero sum goals, including commitment to career success and material gains, appear detrimental to life satisfaction. [1]

Taken at face value then, provided your ambitions are weighted towards the non-competitive goal side and your baseline needs are covered, you stand a good chance of reporting a more contented life over the long term. More than those suffering the hardship of constant material competition.

The key may be in understanding the limitations of ambition and of material gain.

This can be rephrased as “are you ambitious for your own sake, or for others’?”.

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Thanks for reading. Discussion welcome below.

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[1] Life Goals Matter to Happiness study, Bruce Headey, 2006