Grateful Yet Ambitious: The Never-ending Climb!

In my first year of entrepreneurship, I hit over 3.2K in earnings three times.

Some told me that it was amazing, others said it was really nice, but I was not content.

My goal was 4.5K and I did not hit that.

When asked if it was ever enough, my answer was pretty simple: no, because I hadn't built the life I wanted to live or made the impact I wanted to make.

This relentless pursuit of higher achievements made me realize that true satisfaction is elusive when you're always looking to the next peak.

If you have certain goals and want to make them a reality, of course.

Do you identify yourself as someone with ambition?

Do you sometimes struggle because people don’t understand you?

Are you the person who wants to be better in the end?

Then this article is for you.

If you achieve your goals, I believe you need to set new ones, higher ones, to never reach the point where you're satisfied, so you can live up to a higher meaning.

In this article, I dive into the topics:

• Hungry & Satisfied

• Everything vs Nothing

• Appreciation

It's hard for people without a vision or certain goals or ambitions to understand you.

They say things like: "Oh, I would never do that!" or "Are you crazy?"

And that is exactly the reason why you do it, because you have the vision and ambition they lack.

If people say such things to you, you're doing something good.

Hungry & Satisfied

To me, 'hunger' in the pursuit of success is a relentless drive, a force that sometimes keeps me up at night, working tirelessly towards my next goal.

I recall nights spent editing videos for YouTube, sacrificing sleep to finish my content, embodying this very 'hunger'.

It's a constant cycle of brainstorming, creating, and seeking improvement.

If you're vegetarian and you don’t eat for a week and someone offers you meat, big chances are that you're going to take it.

That is called hunger, if you really are hungry you do everything to eat.

Hunger is an urge to do something, an urge to move, it drives action.

If you are hungry, you grow, have more energy, and always strive for better results.

Yet, 'satisfaction' can be a double-edged sword.

While it brings a sense of accomplishment, it also harbors the risk of complacency.

To me, satisfaction feels like a halt in progress, a comfort zone where the urgency to strive diminishes, sapping energy and drive.

People find it hard to change and strive for better when they are fine.

If you're satisfied, you don’t care that much because you're good.

It can suck the life out of you.

In my last article, I said “Pain drives change” - no pain, no gain.

• Being good, being satisfied, holds you in place.

• Being satisfied won’t give you energy.

• Being satisfied kills your hunger.

We live in really dangerous times, because everything is easy, too many people live in luxury and do not have to fight for their lives.

We explicitly do not live in hard times.

Made by many people and well done, lots of people miss hunger.

We live in good times.

Hunger is essential to create and do better.

Everything VS Nothing

Hunger and satisfaction are states that are created by circumstances. When you have nothing, it is easy to be hungry.

When you have everything or enough, it's harder to create that urge.

But in the end, what you make of the situation is what counts.

In the end, we are all going to die.

The question you can ask is, "How do I want to be remembered?"

Do you want to be remembered as the one who never had to work, always was average or worse because he or she already had everything and was satisfied?

Or someone who had everything and created his or herself as something bigger and greater above satisfaction towards fulfillment?

Or in the other case, the one who had nothing and created the better for him or herself?

It's the character you build for yourself by the choices you made.

Be conscious of your situation, so you will not be trapped in it.

Set higher goals, and strive.

What would you want to say at your own funeral about yourself?

• That you came from everything and therefore became nothing.

• That you came from nothing and became everything.

• That you were everything and became more.

• That you were nothing and stayed nothing.

The choice is yours.

What I do personally is to set the bar higher, have goals to live up to, create meaning so circumstance does not matter, to keep myself hungry.

Appreciation

In the whirlwind of goal-setting and achieving, I've learned to anchor myself in appreciation.

Expressing gratitude, whether it's through prayer before meals with my girlfriend or acknowledging the growth that challenges bring, has become a vital part of my life.

This practice reminds me of the richness of the present moment, even as I chase the dreams of tomorrow.

What I'm not saying is that you can never be content.

There is a difference between contentment and satisfaction.

Contentment is a mental decision, being satisfied is circumstantial.

What we've discussed is that the circumstantial can be overcome by setting goals and creating purpose to stay hungry.

But appreciation can be for the small things, like being grateful for the food that you can eat, being thankful for the people around you.

One does not have to rule out the other, you can be unsatisfied with the results you have, and at the same time be grateful for the people around you and be content with the situation you're in while still stating you live a happy life.

I personally can experience this because I understand the difference between contentment, striving for better and working towards my goals, and still appreciate what I have.

Your ambition is something strong and for a lot of people something strange, but my entrepreneurial journey has taught me so far that ambition alone isn't enough; it must be coupled with action and discipline.

I'm actively sculpting through relentless effort and determination.

This evolution in my mindset and in combination with appreciation, it’s a sustainable way of going forward.

Don't hold back

To those who find themselves never quite satisfied with their achievements, I offer this advice: Embrace your dissatisfaction as a catalyst for growth.

Let it not be a well of despair, but a springboard for harder work and greater aspirations.

Remember to pause, acknowledge, and appreciate the victories along the way, for they are the stepping stones forward.

In this journey of entrepreneurship, I've learned that ambition and satisfaction are not endpoints but parts of a continuous cycle of:

• Growth

• Gratitude

• Self-discovery

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I wish you a good day - Job Baltes.