Most founders don’t lose ambition because they’ve “made it.” They lose it because learning slows, responsibility piles up, and their interests change. The spark fades.
The good thing is ambition is renewable, and getting it back isn’t about chasing more success, it’s about waking up feeling alive each day for your life and work.
When you first start out, it’s likely ambition is there because you need enough of it to get anywhere meaningful. You have enough energy to break through the resistance, to persist day after day until your project finally comes alive.
As you know, it takes a massive amount of will to bring something into existence.
But after a few years, that ambition often wanes. Why?
Why Ambition Fades
Learning slows down.
The early days are thrilling because everything you do is new. You’re figuring out the territory. Once you know how the business works, the pace of learning drops, and so does your excitement.You change.
Your interests evolve. Markets evolve. Your life circumstances shift. The things you once cared about learning aren’t what call to you anymore.Responsibility weighs in.
Employees, obligations, family, stress, entropy. Over time, the weight of responsibility can dull the spark you have and weigh you down.
Ambition is something you can rekindle.
And there’s good reason to do it beyond even “worldly success” (even though it may lead there).
The reason is much simpler: it feels good to be ambitious about something.
It feels good to wake up with more than enough excitement of things to do. To wake up feeling curious about everything. To see that there is opportunity everywhere. To raise the bar on your life.
As Tony Robbins says, life is about growth. And when we stagnate, we suffer. When you lose ambition → you feel worse → and then you lose more ambition. It’s a downward spiral.
How do you reverse it?
How do you step into the upward spiral where ambition generates energy and energy generates more ambition?
Three Ways to Rekindle Ambition
1. Start learning again.
Curiosity sparks ambition’s fire. When you’re interested in learning, you’re interested in growth.
Make a list of the topics you’d love to dig into.
Buy a book, sign up for a course, find an online program.
Even one new subject can re-ignite your energy.
2. Take the next vulnerable step.
Ambition grows when you step into risk. Comfort is deadening. Life is flat when everything is predictable and easy.
We’re meant to walk in the woods and be inundated with randomness and risk.
That doesn’t mean you need to take reckless risks.
It means asking: What’s my next vulnerable step?
Speak in front of the room. Put yourself out there in a small way by asking someone out.
Do something that scares you a little. Risk takes energy, but it gives back more than it takes.
3. Raise the bar.
Look around your life and ask yourself: Where am I settling?
Your space. Your fitness. Your relationships.
I’ll walk through my house and notice clutter, things that no longer inspire me. That’s a place to raise the bar. Could I organize more? Clean more? Tidy up?
When you set a higher standard, you create the room for growth.
What Kind of Ambition Feels Good to You?
The point isn’t to chase some arbitrary level of achievement, like building a billion-dollar company. People hide in those ideas and delay truly feeling alive due to some distant goal.
The point is to find the level and type of ambition that feels good to you.
Maybe it’s becoming the most relaxed person in the world. Or being a great friend. Or leading your business into its next evolution.
Ask yourself today:
What do I want to learn most right now?
What’s my next vulnerable step (risk)?
Where can I raise the bar in my life?
Answer those, and you’ll feel your ambition return.
As always,
xx David
