About a year ago I read a blog about how to best manage time while working on ambitious projects or tasks.  The entire article was interesting, but how the author defined  Ambition has stuck with me.  I can not remember what the blog is where I read it, which is why I can not provide a link to it, and which is why I am paraphrasing here, but essentially what the author wrote was that working on an ambitious project, by definition, means that we are working to the very limit of our current abilities.  Over the past several months I have been working on multiple ambitious projects, both for work and personal interest, and it has prompted me to create the following graphic.

The inner circle represents what we Know.  It’s our cumulative knowledge to date – our comfort zone.  This Circle of Knowledge grows as we take on new tasks and duties in our life.

The outer, darker circle is the Unknown.  These are things we have not done or tried before.

Then there’s the zone of Ambition.  This is the edge of our abilities where we stretch our knowledge and skills by tackling new things.  Every time we enter into this zone it results in our Circle of Knowledge expanding.

The interesting thing about this graphic is that it can apply to any part of one’s life.  A baby who is learning to walk, a child starting at a new school, learning to drive, getting married, a new job – all of these things are new to us as we grow, and they’re all testing our abilities.  These aren’t necessarily always Ambitious items, but they do grow our circle of knowledge.  This graph also works on a smaller level, say someone who is learning how to use some new software, or creating new software.  All of it pushes the limits of what we know.

An ambitious person will spend more time in that transitionary zone of Ambition, growing their circle of knowledge.  I find that as the Known circle grows, the zone of Ambition is ever more challenging, thus requiring a greater ambition and effort to expand into the unknown.