// April 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal
It’s a funny one, the force that drives us to be more than we are.
Motivated by what I’m not too sure; greed? ambition? boredom?
But, the more I sit here and wonder where I’m supposed to be in the general scale of things the clearer it becomes in my mind: aspiration is a purely human concept and one that is personal to each individual. One man’s drive can be fired by something that would leave others cold.
And what of those who are inserted into life with less to aspire to? Those born into wealth or at a position within the social hierarchy where wealth is implied. What do they work for? A new set of golf clubs? An additional holiday in San Tropez each year?
I suppose it doesn’t really matter what you aspire to as long as you are reaching for something. Too often I’ve seen those with no dreams, beaten by life into believing that the way things are is the best they can get.
As for me … I couldn’t say exactly what drives me but I know that there is something that pushes me through the days. If only I could find a way of making it more tangible then perhaps I’d be further along, a couple of ladders closer to square 100 than I am right now.
I can take comfort from knowing that aspiration is inherited, the next generation normally picks up where we will leave off. Some will succeed, some will fail, dropping further down the scale to finish worse off than they started. Sometimes that grade is deserved, sometimes it’s not, but fold fate into the mix and there can be few arguments.
In the mean time I’ll carry on rolling the dice, making my moves and trying to make that excruciatingly difficult jump to the next rung, content in the knowledge that it’s not the success that counts, it truly is the taking part.
