Does being an ambitious student mean you have to make yourself miserable to achieve your goals? I don’t think it does, and neither does Cal Newport.
Cal’s latest blog post about college admissions argues that ambition is a good thing; if you work hard and stand out, you’ll have more interesting opportunities (colleges, jobs, promotions, etc.). But if your workload leaves you stressed, sleep-deprived and miserable, you’re going to miss out on a lot of those great opportunities. This is the mistake a lot of high school students make. Their attitude is that if they can just survive their brutal workload and get accepted to their dream school, they'll be set for life. This survivalist mindset is short-sighted and unsustainable. The happiest and most successful students are the ones who find a way to pursue their ambitions without sacrificing their happiness.
There are lots of ways to find and maintain that balance (both my blog and Cal’s give you lots of suggestions for how to do it). But Cal’s most important assertion here is that high school and the college admissions process are the perfect time for students to learn this valuable skill of finding and achieving balance in their lives.
He’s not arguing that you abandon your ambitions and neither am I. He’s just arguing that some students should consider redefining them.