12 ambition examples that’ll inspire your goal-setting

Challenging goals can feel scary, encouraging you to leave your comfort zone and push your boundaries.

But when your goals aren’t lofty enough, you might feel stagnant and unfulfilled, making it better to set ambitious objectives that offer more growth and satisfaction.

Ambition is the desire and motivation to continuously achieve increasingly difficult goals. It’s the spark inside you that compels you to try your best at everything you do.

Examples of ambition look different for each person, as everyone’s marker for “daunting yet fulfilling” is unique. But no matter the ambition examples you resonate with, these goals will help you live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. 

Why is ambition important?

Ambition is important because it drives you to set impressive goals and do everything in your power to achieve them. This motivational force helps you face new challenges head-on and continuously develop a growth mindset. And this forward momentum makes you feel like you’re pursuing your purpose and working toward a more meaningful life.

Your sense of ambition might wax and wane depending on where you’re at in your life — it can even change daily if you’re feeling extra tired or burned out. But you’ll always have desires you want to work toward, and any time you take on this work, you’re activating your own ambition. 

That said, it’s reasonably frustrating when your ambition is low and you can’t find the energy to accomplish your goals. These dreams are essential to feeling like you’re becoming the best version of yourself. And when your ambition in life becomes the barrier to achieving your goals, it’s normal to feel discouraged or overwhelmed.

If you’re feeling unmotivated, you can bolster your ambitious spirit by practicing the following seven characteristics found in highly ambitious people: 

1. Continuously planning and setting specific goals to promote focus
2. Staying motivated to achieve goals that help you self-actualize
3. Only feeling satisfied when you reach your ambitious goals
4. Competitively working alongside others, but for the sake of career growth and success
5. Willingly making changes in your life to better pursue your goals and purpose
6. Taking risks while maintaining critical thinking and emotional regulation
7. Remaining flexible and open-minded to strategically solve problems

6 examples of ambition in life

In life, you display your ambition in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to those around you, whether it’s by taking proactive steps in improving your mental health by seeking a mental health professional or making strides in your professional development by starting a small business. It also subtly impacts your mindset, causing you to strive to do better, sustain your efforts, and think of the future but still be present. 

Here are six flexible ambition examples you can use as a template when finding ways to let your ambition shine:

1. Wanting to be great at something: To ambitiously approach a hobby or new skill, you’ll want to be great at it — not OK or decent, but great. Spending hours practicing will help elevate you from amateur to expert. 
2. Being passionate: Life’s too short to live without pursuing your passions, whether that’s seeking an American English literature degree or performing in plays like Macbeth. Ambitious people work toward their goals in a passionate and purposeful way. 
3. Being persistent: Ambitious people don’t easily give up when pursuing their goals, often doing whatever it takes to succeed. This might mean upskilling, revising a plan to make it attainable, and asking for help. 
4. Making a difference: Helping others is among the most persuasive and inspiring social motivators around. Working toward altruism-based goals gives your life more meaning and fulfillment, whether that’s helping a colleague with their communication skills or a friend practice their Spanish.
5. Having a vision: You can only work toward achieving something if you truly understand what it is and how to get there, and visualization techniques assist this process. Methods like defining your company’s vision or journaling about your desires help you build a more meaningful trajectory. 
6. Exuding self-motivation: Ambitious people don’t require as much external motivation, instead holding themselves accountable and taking action. That doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. It just means you don’t need it as often and understand your own motivators enough to leverage them when you’re in a rut. 

6 examples of ambition at work

Ambition is a desirable skill at work because it symbolizes your self-motivation skills, work ethic, and accountability. And it often means you’ve accomplished some pretty impressive career goals, making your resume stand out to human resources professionals. 

Workplace ambition typically falls into one of three categories: performance, growth, or achievement. But what’s key is finding a balance between all three because well-rounded career ambitions ensure you’re creating the right work-life balance while feeling professionally satisfied.

With that in mind, here are six examples of workplace ambition:

1. Creating a career plan: If you’re ambitious, you’ll likely create a career plan or professional development plan that considers both short-term and long-term goals. This helps you prepare to meet every objective.
2. Listening to feedback: You’re bound to make mistakes — everyone is. But viewing errors as learning opportunities showcases your self-improvement mindset because the more you learn from each shortfall, the better you can perform in the future. So seize every opportunity to receive feedback and note how you might improve your skills to achieve workplace goals.
3. Wanting to be an expert: While you can never truly know everything about a topic, the wish to become a subject matter expert showcases your willingness to learn. You understand that expertise takes time, grit, and determination — and you’re ready to put the effort in to get there (or at least close). 
4. Owning your own business: Very ambitious people will likely get to the point where being their own boss is their dream job — especially if this is the only rung left on the career development ladder. And if you’re ambitious, you’re uniquely qualified to succeed since you won’t give up and are prepared to learn from your mistakes. 
5. Striving to be a mentor: Someone likely mentored you when you entered the industry, and maybe you’d like to return the favor. Mentors guide others on their career paths by teaching them new skills and offering career advice. In this position, all your growth and achievements help you give back to others and feel fulfilled.
6. Being humble: As some of these other examples showcase, pursuing challenging and daunting goals requires humility and vulnerability. You must recognize how little you know and how much work is ahead of you to gain the right skills and strategically complete tasks. And learning from your mistakes and asking for feedback both require you to be vulnerable, truly accepting that you’re not perfect and embracing every way you can improve. 

8 habits you can put into practice

You’re showing your ambitious side by learning everything you can about the topic, but now it’s time to put your knowledge to the test. 

Ambitious people have certain habits that help them stand out compared to people who aren’t as ambitious. You might not notice it right away, but it’s in the details. Small things contribute to how ambitious you are and your mindset toward achieving personal ambitions and career aspirations. 

If you need some healthy habits to support the goals you’re chasing, try these out. 

1. Find a social group with similar goals​​

Do your friends shrug off goal-setting, or do they share your enthusiasm for growth and hard work? Your social health impacts your attitude, so be mindful of who you hang out with. Surround yourself with like-minded people who share your focus. This might mean making new friends as an adult to find the right mix of people who motivate and inspire you. 

2. Be punctual

Organize your schedule and manage your time to ensure you’re not late or keeping others waiting. Things like job interviews and coffee with mentors demand that you’re on time and prepared. But your loved ones deserve the same level of respect — even for casual things. Punctuality means you’re intentional with your time.

3. Learn from your mistakes

Chances are slim that you’ll achieve lofty goals hiccup-free, but every mistake is a chance to grow and do a better job in the future. Embrace failures, taking a moment to meditate on them or journal to discover what you could do better next time. 

4. Hold yourself accountable

Owning your failures also means accepting responsibility for your actions — both good and bad. Make sure you celebrate your wins and are proud of yourself, but know when to admit that you’ve done something wrong. You might want to find an accountability partner to keep you in line while you build better habits. 

5. Set SMART goals

You’re only as successful as the goals you set, so make them specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Not everyone can become an astronaut or Olympic athlete. You need to balance your well-being and available resources with the right amount of challenge so you feel motivated by and capable of achieving your goals. 

6. Leverage your motivators

The best thing you can do to increase your ambition is to understand what motivates you. There’s no right or wrong motivating factor — financial security, work-life balance, and deeper connections are all valid. Take the time to assess what yours are so you can create goals you actually want to achieve. 

7. Follow your inspiration

Ambition often starts with inspiration. Feeling inspired by someone else’s accomplishments is a great way to discover what you want to achieve.

Here are a few suggestions for finding inspiration: 

• Create a vision board, adding quotes and pictures of careers, hobbies, and people that inspire you
• Meditate on the coworkers and loved ones you’re most inspired by
• Write a list of 10 people in your professional life that you admire and why
• Work with a career coach to determine what your goals are and how you might find industry-specific inspiration

8. Follow your jealousy

Jealousy isn’t inherently bad. Often, it signals the things you wish you had, like a graduate degree or promotion. Notice these feelings of envy and consider whether you’d like to add these accomplishments to your list of “to-do” objectives. You might go through the same four steps offered in the previous section to determine who you envy and why. 

Be ambitious about increasing your ambition

By reading this article on ambition examples, you’ve already expressed your go-getter nature. You’re willing to learn and ready to take on challenging goals — and that’s impressive. Now, ride this momentum to create an action plan that increases your ambition.

That might include habits you can practice to feel more passionate and motivated as well as strategic goal-setting that includes scarier objectives. Taking on this work offers you an unmatched sense of purpose — enjoy it.

With enough grit and determination, you’ll find that this is the driving force you need to live a purposeful and happy life for years to come.