Ambition begins with understanding the aspirations you have for yourself and your team. These aspirations are often expressed in the form of goals that define your desired outcomes. Knowing how far to reach for any given aspiration is key to harnessing healthy ambition. Setting goals that require just the right level of difficulty and discomfort helps ensure you push yourself and your team to reach beyond your current abilities. If the challenge is too great, you risk giving up or becoming discouraged when you fall short. If the challenge isn’t great enough, you risk becoming bored or never realizing the full potential of your efforts.

Both your desires and your discontent can serve as guidance on how high to aim. Ask yourself, “What do I wish was different about how things are today?” and “What about the way things are frustrates me most?” Perhaps you are dissatisfied with your team’s inability to beat a rival competitor but know that with the right service levels, you could handsomely outperform them. Perhaps you are unhappy with your team’s work ethic, but know with a change of attitude, they could reach their goals. Your desire and discontent could raise the bar in both situations. Discontent fuels our convictions that things can and should be improved while desire creates the energy to move toward that improvement.