Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
If your motivation for acquiring money or success comes from a non-supportive root such as fear, anger or the need to 'prove' yourself, your money will never bring you happiness.
I now derive physical and spiritual pleasure from gardening and there is tremendous satisfaction in knowing that I could survive almost anywhere if I had to.
Running is a gift I give myself almost daily. Even at days when everything seems to go wrong, I treat myself on the satisfaction of a lap of 30 to 40 minutes.
Everybody wants to reach the top of the mountain, but there is no growth at the peak. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak.
It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one's own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.