#ending projects

What? How does that even happen?

It is not controversial to say that most people have what can be classified as "ambitions". These are things they have not yet reached, but desire to.

Ambitions themselves are not evil. If it was not for ambition, there would be no improvement in the world, as those content with the world wouldn't see a reason to change.

However, an ambition is like a knife: The goodness of it is about the context of what's being cut. Cutting vegetables for a stew? Good. Cutting someone (including yourself)? Bad.

(No, I don't know if that's an apple, onion, or something else)

Some ambitions, those made that disadvantage others, are obviously bad, but not all bad ambitions are obviously bad or bad in all contexts.

What can make an ambition bad?

Besides the obvious ones, where fulfilling it would bring unnecessary harm (of any form) to others, the main way an ambition can be bad is if it is blocking your ability to do other things that are important to you.

An ambition is Blocking if fulfilling it, or thinking of fulfilling it, "blocks" you from other necessary or enjoyable tasks. Too often, I at least, get into states where I can't do things because I've convinced myself I have to get something else done first.

There can be cases where having a blocking ambition can be motivating, but there are limits. If a blocking ambition can be solved in a few minutes to an hour or so, it can be a good way to get yourself to do something.

However, there are two common problems with this:

Problem 1: You don't do it anyway.

Sometimes, despite the fact it won't actually take that long, you keep putting it off. This can spiral into a feeling of guilt over being "lazy" and that can make it even harder, reinforcing the feelings of laziness.

The solution depends on the ambition. You need to evaluate if the passion for it is truly still there.

If there is passion for it, use that passion to push you to it. Remind yourself of how important it is to you, and how it'll feel to complete it.

If the passion for it is gone, stop forcing it. You can always go back to it if it returns, and annihilate it if there isn't.

Problem 2: The ambition is too long term or ambiguous.

This is the far more insidious problem. Humans, for our many strengths, are creatures motivated by short term payoffs and rewards. Sometimes comically so.

(if you know about reward psychology, you get this reference)

If removing a block would come too far in the future, even if you put all the effort and time in that you can, to some part of your brain, it's as if that block is never going away.

And because the reward of the block being removed vanishes to the most base instincts of your brain, so does the power of the block to motivate. Instead, it feels more like an obligation thrust on you, even though you were the one that made it.

Yeah this sounds pretty bad to me. How do I get out of it?

You annihilate the blocking ambition, or at least the blocks.

If you've read the linked post or others discussing Giratina on this blog before, you've heard Annihilation used in this context before. In essence, it's destroying something you created to get the energy back from it. The name is inspired by what happens when Antimatter, which Giratina represents, collides with normal matter.

For an ambition, to annihilate is to tell yourself to not be burdened by the idea of fulfilling it anymore. To say to yourself, "This is no longer something I want."

Letting go of an ambition can be scary. Especially if you've put serious effort into it. You might be afraid you don't have anything else you want to do with yourself.

But it's easy to let this fear get in the way of what you really want. To think it'll "just be worth it in the end" or "it would disappoint people if I didn't go through with this". If you have to justify the time you spent to yourself, give the ambition a critical look.

If it's not as easy as just deciding to not do it anymore, such as if your financial stability depends on it, then make efforts to look into an exit plan. If the ambition does pay off or the desire to do it comes back, you've already got a backup for next time. If it doesn't, you'll be happier that you started working on a way out before the stress is ruinous.

Man, this post is pretty cool! Where could I go to learn more or talk with other people who like these? Or just talk Pokémon in general?

You're in luck there, I have a Discord Server! We're currently planning our next group activity, and are a small community looking to grow!