The UK Discourages Ambition — I Know This First Hand

A society that discourages ambition in its young breeds many life-changing consequences

Ambition is one of the many soft skills and personality traits people need to succeed worldwide. However, it is also something that society and people can foster on both personal and societal levels. Some societies infuse the deep-rooted beliefs that people should aim to follow their dreams and do what makes them happy. Additionally, and critically, they shouldn’t let anyone — or any negative beliefs — hold them back. However, there are also many countries where this is not the case. The UK is one of those places.

This is something that I’ve come to realise first-hand. As a young British woman who has always held ambitious goals (including moving out of the UK and becoming financially secure), I’ve encountered barriers every step of the way that I’ve had to overcome, sidestep, or learn to accommodate in some way. Even now, I’m in my mid-20s, and I have to bat away systemic barriers that try to derail my ambitions. It’s exhausting, but I will keep going.

Anyway, in today’s post, I want to talk about why the UK systemically discourages ambition based on my own experiences.

Why does the UK discourage ambition?

This fundamentally comes down to systematic beliefs in British culture, many of which you’re probably aware of.

Classism

This is the most well known one so I’ll keep it brief. Brits act as if your social class is assigned at birth like your gender. Furthermore, anyone that dares to try to break free from these shackles must be forced back into line, even to the point of outright abuse.

Serfdom

This is the idea that working class people must always be subservient to people of a higher social class (usually those that speak with the same accent as media and political figures, wear certain clothes and are rich), with the implication that these people are “naturally better” for some reason I don’t understand.

Acting adventurous to disguise mundanity

This is a popular philosophy in Britain that working-class people should be content with a mundane existence while pressuring everyone in their circles to follow the same philosophy. Yet this also extends to maintaining the illusion that they’re adventurous.

Hence why so many Brits act as if their experiences abroad and seeing the world should start and end with holidays in popular resorts in Southern Europe (while also voting for Brexit and making it harder to visit said tourist traps, let alone integrate anywhere else).

Tone policing

Any attempt to demand better for yourself and others is often met with disapproval and outright hostility from other British people. If you say or do anything that other Brits dislike, you are talking in the wrong way and must be shamed into talking the “right way” aka not at all. Keep quiet and carry on.

Essentially, the societal pressures and ideas of Britishness that discourage ambition and support mediocrity are shackles on the hearts and minds of ambitious people unfortunate enough to live in the UK.

How does it make ambitious people feel? My own experience

My feelings are somewhat complex regarding all this because I’ve encountered all the above throughout my life for as long as I can remember. So in other words, on a nearly daily basis. This ranges from conversations I have with close family and strangers alike to the overall oppressive feelings that come with living in the UK if you dare to be broad-minded.

It’s lonely

I feel like I’m one of only nine people in a population sea of almost 70 million people who care about bettering themselves all while seeing the world. Many people have filtered in and out of my life. Many of them have discouraged me from pursuing my ambitions, whether it be anxieties about how I’d manage or malicious intent designed to destroy my self-esteem.

Yes, people have done this partly because they feel uncomfortable knowing that people around them are striving for their best. Whereas they sense their insecurities but are too scared to confront them, breeding jealousy.

Even as an adult, I see everyone around me seemingly content with accepting what they see as “their lot in life,” and act accordingly. I feel like few people truly understand and desire to live the ambitions they dream of. And in my case of wanting to leave the country, many like-minded people have already done so permanently. I do not blame them at all for doing this. In fact, I’m happy for them because they have secured their future.

I feel unwelcome in British society

There is the saying “I feel like a foreigner in my own country,” and I think I get where people who say this are coming from. Although I don’t feel like a foreigner in the UK. I’ve lived here most of my life, I know how the average Brit thinks and operates very well. Rather, I feel like I’ve been increasingly pushed out of a society that I wish I never had to enter, to begin with.

My deep ambitions are fundamentally incompatible with what British society says I should aspire for — a mundane, miserable existence in a dead-end job, relying on Universal Credit to top up my wages and rent because my income is too low to save anything. Oh, did I say rent? Yes, I did, because British society says young people should be trapped in a house shared with strangers well into their thirties or even forties. It’s pushing cruelty for the sake of cruelty, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you cannot work full time, are disabled / marginalised in some other way, and don’t have access or support from your siblings or the Bank of Mum and Dad, good luck. You’re doomed to a life in poverty.

I want to feel free

The only time I have ever felt truly free from the shackles of Britishness is when I lived abroad in Japan for around nine months during my degree. While residing in Japan, I was free from the shackles of Britishness and its ambition-sapping restraints. This is despite living in Japan having its own problems and energy-sapping systems of its own.

However, I felt truly free to be myself for the first time in my life. I felt free to tell the world “Hi I’m Milla, this is what I stand for and these are my goals” without holding back out of so-called politeness. These are the feelings that come with unshackled ambitions. I want to leave the UK. I want to feel free every day.

When people try to crush your ambitions, rebel

This is the best way to oppose those who try to shut down your ambitions — especially in a country hostile to ambitious people like the UK. People’s reactions to your ambitions reflect more about them than it does about you. In fact, showcasing your ambitions and desire to improve your life is a good thing. Which also, by extension, benefits others in your trusted circle, especially if you succeed.

Frankly, the world needs more of that, especially in the UK. People who don’t understand your ambitions may come around to understand and support you in the future, especially if they see first-hand the positive benefits meeting your goals and following your ambitions does to your mental and physical health, alongside your quality of life.

This is the strategy I’ve been following, and it has helped me a lot.

Final thoughts

If you meet a British migrant in your country, they’re likely one of those ambitious Brits who are free from the ambition-crushing shackles of Britishness.

I truly hope societal attitudes towards ambition in the UK change. Perhaps after another decade or two of avoidable deprivation — alongside demographic shifts — those societal shackles will break for all Britons. That will benefit everyone.

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