contentment and ambition
Contentment and ambition1 are hard to balance. In order to be ultra-ambitious, you need to keep moving the finish line and never be content with where you are currently. An ultra-ambitious person would call the content person complacent. Whereas to be content, you need the complete opposite mindset.
I believe myself to be on the ambitious side of the scale. I also believe I could choose to be either--but not both. I truly believe I could toggle the "ambition" off in my head and be very content with myself, without deteriorating. Some people I've talked to don't believe they can toggle their ambition off. Maybe I'm different, or maybe I don't know myself well enough and I'm lying to myself.
But if I can choose to be more content, why am I not toggling off the ambition switch? Ambition could make me more successful in the traditional sense--money, respect, whatnot--but if I believe I'll be happier without it, then is that not what matters in the end? Maybe there's a part of me that doesn't fully believe this theory. Maybe I believe it and yet I'm afraid to take the leap. Ambition is all I've ever known.
Footnotes
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In my head, being ambitious is being career-focused. I haven't considered being ambitious in other aspects of life. I believe being more focused on friends and family falls within contentment. ↩