boosting ambition

At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, especially when they are relatively young, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.

Tyler Cowen from "The high-return activity of raising others' aspirations"

Most people are more capable than they think. But for whatever reason, they hold back. Maybe out of fear, or habit, or comfort. Or because thinking big might make them seem naive. Often, all it takes for someone to think bigger and push harder is one person pointing that out.

This happens to me constantly – at work, in sports, relationships, side projects – because I have people around me who push me. It costs them nothing.

Surround yourself with people who raise your ambition. And be that person for others!

Related conversation

People are, for various reasons, afraid to think really big. One, it seems overreaching. Two, it seems like it would be an awful lot of work. As an outside person, I'm like an instructor in some fitness class. I can tell someone who's already working as hard as they can – all right, push harder. It doesn't cost me any effort. And surprisingly often, they are capable of pushing harder. A lot of my secret is just being the person who doesn't have to actually do the work that I'm suggesting they do. – Paul Graham