Unfortunately our society revolves around competition. There is nothing wrong with sports, or public contests because they are a stimulus that motivates us to do better. The competition that I am referring to is personal competition. I have had friends who were so competitive that it was hard for me to hold a conversation with them. I had one particular friend once who felt that it was necessary to top everything that I said. No matter what it was he had done better, or had one bigger, or had the same problem but worse.
This type of competition is not healthy at all and actually indicates a state of psychosis. The person who feels that it is necessary to compete with everyone has some serious issues. Some people will still do this but maybe not to the same degree. In this instance Im talking about the friend or neighbor who makes it their business to point out your deficiencies to you. This person really does not like him or herself and seeks to push their own feelings of self loathing onto you so they wont have to deal with reality. They want to vaunt themselves and seek to do so by putting you down.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to do better. We should all want to improve, but the problem arises when we attempt to measure our own success by looking at the success of others.
You should measure your success by the personal goals that you have set for yourself. Your competition should be internal. You should compete with yourself every day in the sense that you want to do better. When you do this you will be better that the next person but that is not the issue at all. You should not want to be better than the next person to the extent that you will sabotage his or her actions or character. When I served in the US Military I saw this many times ad it didnt really help the organization. It fostered ill will and took away from esprit de corps.
Have you ever noticed that in the majority of situations people of lower socioeconomic status have to have the fanciest car, or most expensive clothing. This just refers to the fact that they are using these things as a gage of success. They are not successful by their own account but their idea of success may be twisted by lack. The reason that I say this is that they often seem to gage success by the possession of nice things. Now successful people ought to be able to have nice things but why does money have to be the standard? In my opinion you are successful if you have a few good friends who really love you. The person who has a wrong value system will always feel that they have something to prove to the world. This is totally the wrong concept. You can never prove your worth to the world so its just a futile effort. It will take you down a never ending spiral. Dont feel like you have anything to prove to the world or anyone else for that matter.
The competitive employee may become the head of his or department but is he or she really happy. What is the price that the competitive person pays to win? Is there any satisfaction? I have seen people who are competitive but absolutely miserable. Have you ever seen the boss that makes all of his or her employees unhappy? Can you imagine the home life of that person? It has got to be a total mess. Many times the boss who works all of the time is so unhappy at home that they would rather stay at work.
There is no reason to have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to the rest of the world. If you want to be competitive compete with yourself. You will be the better for it and those who want to compete with you will always have to follow your lead.
Riceland Enterprises
