How much is too much?

Hope and ambition are two very closely related emotions. The only difference between the two is that to be hopeful is to sit and wait for the miracle and to be ambitious is to make the miracle happen. Both hope and ambition help us survive and then make the best of ourselves. Without hope we would wither away in depression and without ambition we would make no progress at all. But as is with all good things, too much of them can be painful. Too much hope leads to being delusional and too much ambition leads to... god alone knows what. Personally, I don't see a down side to too much ambition as long as one's vision is not too narrow, that is to say, that one does not lose oneself in the pursuit of whatever it is that one is pursuing. But I do know that ambition can be the cause of much suffering.

So the question really is, how much is too much? When Leonidas fought for Sparta with his 300 men, he did the only thing he could, ambitious or not. He thought of the consequences of not fighting, and in comparison, even this ambitious battle seemed to make sense. It seems as though hope and ambition are but survival tools, that help us live our live the best we can.