Can ambition be bad?

A certain amount of ambition in a person’s life can be a very positive thing.  However, as with all things in life, this can turn negative if done in excess.  Some amount of ambition throughout your life is good for your motivation and can lead to your successes and accomplishments. Without any ambition, you wouldn't have the drive to start your own business, set goals for yourself or achieve those goals. But an excess of ambition can also be dangerous, putting you at risk of burnout, missing out on things that are happening around you with family and friends as well as taking care of your own physical health.

If you are over-ambitious it is possible that you could take on too much too fast or try to reach goals that are not realistic for you.  This puts you in a situation where you can either cause burnout trying to reach those goals and not taking proper care of yourself or you may push yourself to reach the goals and not succeed.  This can cause you to feel a sense of failure that may not be warranted.

Being too ambitious can also hurt the people closest to you. Reaching for our dreams can come at the expense of our own and others' health, happiness, and well-being. People who have supported you throughout your life may tend to feel left out or abandoned by your ambition.  You could lose friends, family, or spouses because you did not have time for them.  Those with too much ambition seem to tackle each day with seriousness and severity.  Occasional victories may increase your mood, however, most all too soon fall back down into the pit when the high wears off. They tend to only see the next finish line rather than the journey they are on to get there.  This leaves little room for celebrating our successes and makes us have difficulty living in the moment.

Those who have ambition tend to be successful in whatever they do, however, that can come at some cost if there is no balance established and boundaries put into place to make sure that the person values self-care and the care of their relationships as well.