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Dalai Lama on stress and ambition (from The Book of Joy)

Stress and anxiety often come from too much expectation and too much ambition. Then when we don’t fulfill that expectation or achieve that ambition we experience frustration. Right from the beginning it is a self-centered attitude – I want this, I want that. Often we are not being realistic about our own ability or about objective reality. When we have a clear picture about our own capacity we can be realistic about our effort then there is a much greater chance of achieving our goals. But unrealistic effort only brings disaster. So in many cases our stress is caused by our expectations and our ambition.