28 | Are You Ambitious (or More Like Me?)

The Gentle Rebel Podcast

Would you say you're an ambitious person? What does ambition mean to you? After rediscovering an old review for the Atlum Schema LP, I was reflecting on this word. It celebrated its fourteenth anniversary in June, and I found the full video of the launch show from Harbour Lights Cinema in Southampton. The review said: “This is an ambitious, almost audacious debut from Atlum Schema. Back in the mid-eighties this would have been called ‘big music’ full of ideas, aspiration and emotion. The album has an incredible depth and variety, some memorable songs and sounds excellent. ‘Hold On’ could easily be a hit single if it got any airplay, and elsewhere ‘I Can’ is a moving story of lost love and regret. This is the sort of album that is either going to disappear without trace and be picked up on in 20 years as a lost classic, or it might just make its way onto this year’s Mercury Prize list. Either way, give it a listen now. You will be intrigued and impressed.” – New Sound Wales Other than having a comforting and terrifying realisation that the album is now only six years away from being picked up as a lost classic (it didn't make it onto the 2009 Mercury Prize list), I was struck by the word "ambitious". We were chatting about it in a Haven Open Kota session too. Not everyone relates to ambition, imagination, and goals similarly. Retrospective Ambition In a post from the old blog, I wrote about ambition: "I have always been highly motivated and driven to succeed at the things that pique my curiosity. In some senses, I am very ambitious. But my ambitions are difficult to define, and as a multipotentialite, they can be hard to measure." I still resonate with this. I’m not sure “ambitious” or “audacious” are words anyone would use to describe me as a person. At least, I never have ambitious or audacious plans. So this difference between the creator and WHAT we create intrigues me. Can we do ambitious things without being “ambitious” people? What does it mean to have ambition? I didn’t set out to create anything ambitious or audacious. I rarely do. But things can spiral occasionally. Once the ideas gather momentum, things can get a little out of hand. This kind of ambition doesn’t feel ambitious when it's happening. At least, not in the way I think of ambition. It’s not driven by a desire to achieve. It emerges from the playful question, “What if?” Experimental and Conceptual Ambition In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I take the idea that some people are Conceptual types and others are Experimental types and thread the notion of ambition through it. I first explored this distinction with Kendra Patterson on the theme of late bloomers. What's The Difference? More conceptually oriented people can imagine a future outcome and figure out the best path to get from here to there. In contrast, experimental types start where they are and build incrementally, accumulating and integrating discoveries and experiences that take them from one step to the next. Imagine Where You'll Be in Five Year's Time Conceptual people can base their ambitions on what they imagine the future to look, feel, sound, smell, and taste like. But this is not as easy for experimental types. Imagining what life will look like in five years is impossible. As an experimental friend said to me recently, "Ask me where I'll be in five years, and I'll have to give you a call to let you know in five years". In other words, life is unlikely to look like you can imagine it looking when you're experimentally minded. Things will be learned and changed along the way. Our common assumptions and ways of operating in modern society build around conceptual models. We are encouraged to use labels, boxes, and measures for everything. And yet, so much of the world (and humanity) doesn't fit that way of thinking. Common Conceptual Assumptions A conceptual mindset can be beneficial at times.