Upon reading my first blog entry, my husband suggested that the title "The Ambitious Writer" might convey I will step on anyone who gets in my way on my path to becoming a successful writer. Well, that is just not true. It's interesting to me that Hubbie thinks of ambitious as a bad word. The name of this blog came to me in a flash one night (I do my best "writing" when I'm in bed about to fall asleep. It's very convenient.) so I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the title, I just went with it. As a lifelong over-thinker this was a good step for me.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ambition is defined as 1. an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power, and 2. desire to achieve a particular end. The second definition is close to how I envision ambition. But I would have put a little more oomph into it. Like, strong desire. Or, strong desire to achieve a particular end while solving world peace in the meantime. That's probably a bit much.
I was alarmed by the first definition. Why does that have to be the first? Upon further thought, why did that cause me alarm? Is a desire to be famous and powerful a bad thing? I guess in today's world of reality television "stars" who clearly want to be rich and famous without actually achieving anything then, yes, it sounds like a bad word. But to merely want to reach a particular end-- my particular end, that which I want to accomplish in life-- what is so wrong with that?
The word ambitious means to me that I will not get in my own way on my path to becoming a successful writer. What does ambitious mean to you?
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