#Carnival Celebration VIFP Party | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vacationimpossible · 6 years

Text

Ambition

Does Ambition have a nature stopping point? When you hear someone described as ambitious is that a compliment? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.

For example, having made Platinum in Carnival’s loyalty program was all I ever really wanted out of the VIFP system. I wanted my free laundry and early access to the cabin and the rest was gravy. So now I sit back and stop counting the days. The other day someone asked me how many VIFP points (or days) I had, and I had no idea. I had the vague conception that it was over 100 but beyond that I had to look it up. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sitting back and enjoying the things that you’ve earned in life. But I do find myself thinking about the odd Diamond perk. I see the Diamond folks being recognized at the VIFP Parties and find myself thinking about when that will be me. For me it began as a practical matter – free laundry could drastically reduce what I need to pack. Then it became a goal. Then I started celebrating milestones towards that goal: red card, gold card. Then I hit Platinum and I relaxed about the whole thing, I stopped keeping track and just enjoyed it. For the VIFP system I had a natural stopping point to my ambition.

When I joined the Hilton HHonors program in London all the way back in 2010 and I heard about the loyalty program’s levels I was enthusiastic, ready to level up like a Role Playing Game until I realized you had to re-qualify each year and my ambition short-circuited. In that program I’m generally Silver but spent a couple years at Gold but that just happened organically. It was never a goal, but I enjoyed the perks.

Does being driven by ambition give you a great reason to get out of bed every day or does it take some of the fun away from things? At what point does it do more harm than good? When do you settle down?

I think when most people think about ambition they think of their day job. Get that raise, get that promotion, climb the next rung of the ladder. My whole life I’ve been the kind of guy who always has his eye on the next rung of the ladder. I never really had an end goal in mind, but I tried to be poised for whatever opportunity came along. Plus, it helps to be mentally prepared to fill in for the boss when the unexpected happens. But I’ve seen ambition be a poison for some people. They see could co-workers promoted and think “why not me?” and they would begin to get bogged down by expectations and a sense of entitlement. The idea of “it’s my turn to be promoted” is toxic in most environments. In 2016 I managed to take 6 cruises plus other vacations – if I could stabilize that, make that sustainable, shouldn’t that be enough for anyone? Permanent vacation isn’t really an option and even if it were I’m sure the lustre would start to fade after a time.

Ambition often comes into play in your side hustle as well. Whether it’s driving for Uber, working part-time in the mall, or say running a YouTube channel it’s hard not to have goals. Goals can be an incredibly useful thing. But how many subscribers are enough? For me, for right now the answer is 1,000 but sure I want more. I wish our videos got more views. But at what point do you stop pushing and just start to enjoy it?

Does ambition keep us going or is it keeping us from relaxing?

Perhaps, like with many things, moderation is key. Ambition in some but not all areas of your life. As Vacation Impossible and Small Youtubers Boost start to take off maybe I need to dial back my ambition in other areas. I’ve achieved a lot in various areas of my life, perhaps it’s time to start enjoying them more.

#vifp #goals #perks #ambition #achievement #success #relax #enjoyment

0 notes