On Aspiration
Salvador Dali, Young Woman at a Window, 1925
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The nature of self-transformation is an ancient philosophical question. How do we become a different person? How do organizations change their identity and culture? Is transformation something that happens to us or something we do? These questions come up often in conversations with clients and in our own lives.
The philosopher Agnes Callard provides a vocabulary for an important kind of transformation, describing pursuits that impact identity, decision making, and growth. Callard identifies two contrasting kinds of change: journeys of Ambition and Aspiration.
Ambition refers to the pursuit of goals that are already clearly understood and valued. We might think of ambition as seeking to achieve.
Aspiration is a process of acquiring new values. We might think of aspiration as seeking to become.
Ambition involves striving to achieve more of something you already value. A person aims to become a doctor because they value healing; someone strives to become a well-known writer because they value artistic success; an organization advocates for education access because they value equal opportunity. Ambition is tied to pre-existing values: you are committed to defined goals and aim to realize them.
With ambition, a person already has a clear grasp of what they want and why it matters. In Callard’s words, "ambition consumes much of an agent's efforts and does not expand his value horizons."
Aspiration, on the other hand, requires the person to reach toward a goal they don’t fully grasp or value they don't yet hold. This process is marked by uncertainty. Callard writes: "for an aspirant, the pursuit is characterized by a distinctive kind of vagueness, one she experiences as defective or in need of remedy." It involves the transformation of the self through gradually learning to value something you have not yet fully understood.
Aspiration requires a kind of existential openness: you are in a process of transforming your self-conception and learning to see things differently. It is about becoming a new kind of person, where you come to appreciate something that you initially do not fully understand.
Developmental psychologists and some philosophers think that people start off their lives as aspirants and gradually solidify over time until they have a fixed framework. And it is indeed true that youth is often a period marked by aspiration. Many of our education systems, for example, are based on the idea of this trajectory from aspiration to ambition. Students start by studying a broad base of topics, learn what interests them, and then narrow down to focus on a career. Similarly, modernization theory also posits cultural, political, and economic progress as a linear progression.
This linear model may be clear, but it risks oversimplification. We should not confine aspiration to youth. Aspiration and ambition can be intertwined, cyclical, or complementary. People continue to transform their values and identities throughout their lives. Midlife crises, career changes, spiritual awakenings, and intellectual growth all indicate that aspiration is not something we should expect to "outgrow." Instead, it can occur alongside ambition, and we might aspire to new values or goals even as we ambitiously pursue established ones.
Sometimes journeys that begin in ambition become aspirational. Human life is rarely stable, and our values are often in flux. Goals ambitiously pursued in one stage might lose their shine, prompting a return to aspiration. A person may ambitiously climb the corporate ladder, only to realize in midlife that they no longer value power or wealth in the same way. Societies might zealously pursue economic growth, then be struck by a hunger for beauty that transcends necessity. Students begin college studying one thing, only to have a different subject call to them. Aspiration can happen to us, but it can only occur when we are open to change, ready to be impacted by the world.
Sometimes, aspiration even requires losing your way. In the words of Rebecca Solnit, my favorite advocate of wandering: "That thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it usually is a matter of getting lost."
In our facilitation, training, and coaching, we work with people and organizations who have both ambitions and aspirations. Part of our task is to help them identify the values that are fixed, but also to explore those territories where they might aspire to see the world in a new way.
Some Reflection Questions:
- What is an example of a journey of ambition in your own life? Of aspiration?
- Do you have an example of a journey that started as a journey of ambition that then turned into a journey of aspiration? For example, when you set out to achieve one thing, but then discovered that your values were transformed along the way?
- Do you take more pride in achievements aligned with values you already hold, or in the acquisition of new values?
- Have you ever gotten lost, and what values did you learn?
- Consider Vertical Development -- is this a model of Ambitious change or of Aspirational Change?
Some Resources:
Agnes Callard, Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming
David Brooks, The Second Mountain
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How do we become different people? How do organizations change their identity and culture? These questions are common.
Philosopher Agnes Callard offers terms for types of self-transformation:
• Ambition: Pursuing goals we already understand and value. We know what we want and why. It consumes our efforts but doesn’t expand our values. It’s about seeking to achieve.
• Aspiration: Gaining new values we didn’t have before. It’s about seeking to become. This involves uncertainty and transforming ourselves to appreciate new things.
Aspiration requires openness. We reach for goals we don’t fully understand. It’s about becoming a new kind of person.
Some think we start life as aspirants and become more fixed over time. Youth is often a time of aspiration, but aspiration isn’t limited to the young. People continue to change their values and identities throughout life. Midlife crises, career changes, and spiritual growth show that aspiration can happen at any age.
Sometimes, ambition turns into aspiration. Goals we once pursued may lose their appeal, leading us back to seeking new values. For example, someone climbing the corporate ladder might realize they no longer value wealth as before.
Aspiration can also mean getting lost to discover new values. Writer Rebecca Solnit says that what is "unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it is often a matter of getting lost.”
In our work with people and organizations, we help them identify fixed values, but also to explore where they might aspire to see the world differently.
Reflection Questions:
• Can you think of an ambitious journey in your life? An aspirational one?
• Have you ever started with ambition and found your values changed along the way?
• Do you value achievements aligned with your existing values more, or the acquisition of new values?
• Have you ever gotten lost and learned new values from the experience?
• Is “Vertical Development” an example of ambitious change or aspirational change?