A few days ago, I came across an old journal I had almost forgotten about.
As I flipped through its pages, I found the plans I had written when I wanted to start my travel business @Chykeann Consults.
There were rough ideas, names of people to call, things to set up, budgets, things I needed to learn, and small goals I had set for myself.
Looking at it made me smile because I realized something, I had achieved all the things I once only imagined.
What struck me wasn’t how ambitious the plans were. It was that I had tracked them. I wrote them down, revisited them, adjusted them, and took one step at a time.
That journal reminded me that ambition grows when progress is visible and tracked.
Ambition isn’t just about dreaming bigger. It’s about noticing that you’ve grown. When you see how far you’ve come, you naturally believe you can go even further.
Sometimes we feel like we’re standing still because we’re always looking at how far we still have to go. But when you look back at where you started, you realize you’ve climbed much farther than you thought.
To the Young Ones,
keep a journal, document your goals, or find a way to track your progress.
Not because every plan will go exactly as expected, but because your records will remind you that growth is happening, even when you don’t notice it.
Don’t compare your Chapter 2 with someone else’s Chapter 20 and feel like you’re failing.
Rather compare yourself with who you were six months ago or even last year, and you’ll probably discover you’ve made more progress than you give yourself credit for.
Celebrate the small wins.
Write them down.
Reflect on them.
Build on them.
The little things you consistently improve today become the big things people admire tomorrow.
So don’t just ask yourself, How far do I still have to go?
Also, ask, How far have I already come?
Sometimes, that’s all the encouragement you need to keep climbing.
✍️ Amara Ann Unachukwu
