Ambition is a powerful force. It’s held as a core virtue, something everyone should have. We beat it into our heads from childhood, “You can do anything.” We are told through media and socialization that ambition leads to success and success leads to happiness.

Ambition is invaluable. Every day our world gets faster. Each year there’s more competition and each year the bar is set higher. We are all racing forward, striving for dreams, striving for something to allow us to be fulfilled.

But when is enough really enough?

How do you know you’ll ever reach a point in your life where you will look up from the daily grind and say, “wow, I actually made it.”

A Vicious Cycle

Or will you hit a milestone, only to immediately set a new one far off in the distance. Will you ever get there? Will you ever stop?

This is something I have always struggled with immensely. When you are told nothing but run faster, jump higher, go further you begin to believe it yourself as well. It becomes part of who you are. You start to believe that there is always another hurdle to jump over. You start to believe that you’re never where you could be.

I’m sure you and I can both see where that line of thinking goes. Eventually, you come to understand that you are never enough. There’s always something more you could be doing. And everything you currently are doing, you could be doing better.

This is one of the most difficult topics to discuss and think about. There is no easy step-by-step plan to overcome it. For many of us, it’s part of who we are. It’s how we think. And fundamentally changing the way we think is no easy task whatsoever, especially when it has been cemented into our psyche through years of socialization.

Letting Go

Being able to sit back and say enough is enough is one of the most coveted goals you can create. In my opinion, you don’t need to be an ascetic monk or connected to a plane of consciousness higher than the rest of us mere mortals in order to be happy with your life. In reality, it can be achieved not by searching for more, but by letting go.

Related: The Art of Living Slowly

It’s hard for me to sit here and throw a blanket over my readers, because all of us are so different, but for many of us our lives are generally not as bad as they are in our heads. The reason we feel so unfulfilled, so lackluster, so underachieving is because that’s what we’re told.

The age of the internet has allowed the hyper-successful to flaunt it in our faces. Our movies, our television, our social media, and our music all blast us in the face with the great life of opulence that we don’t have.

So, we are absolutely convinced that we need it. That we need more than what we have now. But why? Again, when is enough really enough?

However, the counter-argument is to say that ambition is valuable and throwing it away in order to achieve happiness isn’t the smartest move, and to that I agree. You shouldn’t throw away your ambition. You should always strive to be your best self.

Enough is Enough

The key is to not allow others to define your best self for you. Don’t let the outside world tell you that you need immense riches, nice cars, beautiful women or men, and all the other stuff in order to be happy. Look inside yourself, and look around you. If you’re healthy, if you have friends and family, if you’re living comfortably, then acknowledge that. Appreciate it. Be grateful of it, because a hell of a lot of people don’t have that.

Take time to really think about where you want to be in life. Think about what a point is that you could truly look around you and say, “this is enough.”

So, let go of the things you’ve been told that you need. Let go of the internet shoving ideals down your throat. Allow yourself to be yourself, and don’t let anyone define yourself for you.

You have the power to decide when enough is enough, and the sooner you do it, the sooner you can achieve inner peace.