Take our Ambition Test

Find a therapist near me

We often describe highly successful people as having something others lack: ambition, discipline, hunger, or what is sometimes called a “killer instinct.” They seem able to tolerate rejection, pursue difficult goals for years, and continue working long after the initial excitement may have disappeared. This can make success look like a personality lottery, as though some people are naturally equipped to win, while others are not.

Psychological research suggests something more complicated. Achievement is rarely about intelligence or talent alone but how people regulate behaviour, interpret failure, tolerate discomfort, delay gratification, and remain committed when rewards are distant.

One of the central difficulties of goal pursuit is that the cost is immediate while the reward is delayed. Research on delay discounting shows that people tend to value immediate rewards more strongly than delayed ones, even when the delayed outcome is objectively more valuable (Frederick, Loewenstein, & O'Donoghue, 2002). People who achieve difficult goals, then, may be unusually capable of allowing a distant future to influence present behaviour.

This is closely connected to self-regulation. Carver and Scheier (1998) proposed that people regulate behaviour partly by comparing their current position with a desired state. Yet the same gap can produce very different reactions. One person thinks, “I am not there yet, so I need to keep working.” Another thinks, “I am not there yet, so perhaps I am not capable.”

Beliefs about ability matter here. Dweck's (2006) work on mindset suggests that people who see ability as developable are........

© Psychology Today