The Pride Cycle

How can having ambition and goals affect our lives for the good and the bad?

            You may have noticed that recently the world has started to become more and more competitive in colleges and jobs. More people are entering university than ever before. What was once a relatively simple matter is now a matter of serious apprehension. Getting into college consumes the minds of the college bound seniors. For me, I have been very nervous about whether I would get into college. Like many kids, I realized that the competition is fierce to get into universities. Some kids just don’t apply because they think that there is no hope for them. Fortunately, I believed in myself enough to apply, and luckily enough, I got in to both ASU and BYU, with a scholarship at ASU. I was immensely relieved by this. I kept thinking that I didn’t do enough applications, that I didn’t have good enough grades, that my essays weren’t long enough, that I wasn’t in enough clubs, you get the idea. I was tormented by fears that I had not done enough. Nonetheless, I did do enough and I got in.

            If we don’t have any ambition, how are we supposed to do anything worthwhile in life? The truth is that we can’t. If you have nothing to hope for in life, nothing to strive for, and no goals to endeavor to fulfill, we cannot expect to have any happiness. The only thing that we can do is to simply believe in ourselves. If we have a belief in ourselves, than we can accomplish anything. Sometimes, the only thing that we have done wrong is to not believe in ourselves. If we can attain confidence in ourselves, we will create goals and find ambition in life. When we have ambition in moderation, there comes a greater meaning to our lives. Nevertheless, this can also lead to an evil thing if it grows out of moderation. Too much ambition can destroy the lives and the careers of the people around us. Too much confidence leads us to pride, self-centeredness, and greediness. Once we gain too much pride, a disaster strikes us bringing us back to square one. This disaster can be absolutely anything that reduces the confidence in ourselves. The cycle continues like this endlessly unless we find moderation in our self-esteem.

This cycle is called the Pride cycle. It starts at the stage of self-doubt, progresses to self-confidence and ambition, and then progresses to pride and over ambition, then returns to the first stage. Even now, each of us are probably at some point trapped in this cycle. In order to find true, lasting happiness, we must find that point on the cycle where everything is in moderation, and learn to stay there. We must gain self confidence in ourselves, but also we need to temper that with the knowledge that we are not better than our neighbors. We must strive to never think of ourselves in a way that is greater than we actually are. In this we can find inner peace; peace from our doubts and our pride. The greatest among us are the ones that can balance ambition and humility, accomplishment and failure. When this is done, we can leave the Pride cycle and enter the cycle of peace.