“Great ambition is the passion of a great character.” – Napolean Bonaparte

Ambition is generally thought of as being a good thing. The desire to achieve a goal requiring determination and hard work is part of the long history of innovation across the world. If you have ever interviewed someone for a job, you probably have wanted to see ambition in the person you are interviewing. Lacking ambition is usually looked down upon in our culture. But can ambition sometimes be harmful?

Ambition Can Be Unhealthy

Ambition can also be negative when the source of your ambition is not healthy. Where your ambition comes from determines whether it is healthy ambition or not. Healthy ambition keeps you motivated toward a goal, but not to extent that it interferes with relationships, sleep and nutrition. It is being able to enjoy the journey toward the fulfillment of you ambition.

“Perhaps the greatest legacy we can leave from our work is not to instill ambition in others… but the passing on of a sense of privilege, of having found a road, a way to follow, and then having been allowed to walk it, often with others, with all its difficulties and minor triumphs.” – David Whyte

Where Does Your Ambition Come From?

The key to understanding if your ambition is healthy or not is to investigate it’s source. If you are driven by a need within to answer one of the following questions, you probably have an unhealthy ambition, not matter how successful you are.

• Am I good (or good enough)?
• Do I matter?
• Am I important?
• Am I lovable?
• Am I valuable or worthy?
• Do you like or accept me?
• Am I broken or defective?
• Do you think well of me?
• Am I powerful and courageous?
• Am I pleasing those around me?

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.” – James 3:24

If your ambition is driven by proving to yourself and others some base need within you, your ambition is unhealthy. When you achieve what your ambition is driving you toward, you will likely find that the question driving you is still unanswered.

“People with a high degree of healthy ambition are those with insight and strength to control the blind forces of ambition…to shape their ambition so that it matches their interests and ideals, and to harness it so that it fires them without also burning them or those around them." – Neel Burton

Getting to the Heart of Unhealthy Ambition

At Crucible, we believe that what drives your unhealthy ambition is a wounding experience earlier in life. Until you face your woundedness, you will continue to seek the answer from other people to the driving questions above. You will continue to experience unfulfillment from your achievements until you wrestle with God around your woundedness. You may find yourself experiencing success outwardly, but unsatisfaction in your heart.

Move from Unhealthy to Healthy Ambition

Over 7,300 men and women have moved from unhealthy ambition to healthy ambition on one of our powerful, intense Men’s Retreats or Women’s Retreats.  They discovered that the way forward is through the past.  Wrestling God about what is driving you in a company of others who are doing the same brings freedom from the wound that allows your ambition to find a pulling force forward.  You can discover a way to find success with healthy ambition that brings satisfaction and wholeness to your heart.