Admiration and aspiration are two very different things, but it can be easy to get them confused. Admiring someone means that you appreciate the success that they have had in a personal or professional setting. Aspiration on the other hand means...

Admiration and aspiration are two very different things, but it can be easy to get them confused. Admiring someone means that you appreciate the success that they have had in a personal or professional setting. Aspiration on the other hand means what exactly you are trying to become. As children and as adults we often admire individuals, and believe that we want to be just like them. These people could be pro athletes, celebrities or musicians. We see the success and attention that they receive and we immediately believe that we want to be just like them. In reality though are we willing to put in the years of training and development of their craft in order to become them? Our guess would be no.    Aspiration on the other hand refers to what you aspire to become. Surely you can admire someone, however their journey is not your journey. You have to find what you are passionate about and willing to do regardless of the secondary consequences like money, status, or fame. Only at this point will we be able to identify our calling. If we start with the “why” behind our actions we can clearly see what we do because of a need, and what we do because we truly believe in it and have fun. When you come home, after a long day of work, is there a passion or hobby you partake in just because you love it? Or if you do exactly what you love, do you read books after work about your industry because of your love for it?    Admiration isn’t a bad thing in the slightest. It’s normal to admire someone for the courage and consistency it takes to achieve something. Before we idolize the person or role we admire, look towards the daily actions of that person and what it took to get to where they are now. Most of those people would say if they lost everything they would do it all over again, because they simply loved it that much. Aspire to love what you do day in and day out regardless of the consequences, as opposed to aspiring to become someone because of external rewards, like money or fame which can leave us hollow and broken later.

Admiration vs Aspiration