Desperation is one of the most unappealing attributes a person could have. Everyone has been desperate for something at one point or another, whether it be relationships, school grades, making a team of any sorts, a job, and the list could go on and on. The drive for success is fueled by motivation and determination, but when the “drive for success” becomes the “want for success” you lose the motivation and head down a long futile path of desperation.

The cliché “Damsel in Distress,” is associated with the term desperation. There is a difference between looking for support, and being completely reliant. If someone stumbles, they have every right to need help from another, but then must be prepared to do the same in return. Ambition and effort is much more attractive than apathy and lethargy.

Not to say that no one can ever feel desperation; I think that’s an unrealistic expectation. And it doesn’t mean that if someone’s desperate for something that they’re the definition of apathetic; it’s what you do with the desperation that defines it.

Wearing desperation on your sleeve won’t get you the sympathy and pity you’re looking for. If anything, the advertisement of your despair is nothing but distracting to the people around you. Turning desperation into desire, and working at whatever it is you want, won’t seem pathetic, but it will gain the admiration of your peers. Even if you don’t succeed right from the start, at least you’re doing something, rather than sitting, feeling sorry, and dwelling in your own desperation.