Nope, I’m not offering the chance to win a sunny holiday..
Today’s thought is – Is life just one big competition?
To be better than the next person? To go further than anyone thought possible?
Perhaps the answers to these questions is yes.
I have my own slightly simplified version of this. One personality trait I lack is competitiveness. I dislike competition so avoid it.
My belief system is to become the best version of myself (hench this blog!!)
You are you. No one else gets the same opportunities, skills and drive as you do so why want to be like that person?
This belief isn’t spiritual or religious but I like to imagine multiple versions of me. THOUSANDS of other Kathryn’s who look like me, walk, talk and act like me. But they don’t all think like me. I AM THE BEST!
When that other Kathryn rolls over at 7am I am awake and being productive (I wish this was the case everyday).
When you think this way you do your best. You imagine how you’d usually behave – simple things like taking the lift instead of the stairs… Don’t let that other ‘Kathryn’ bring you down.
Whether or not we actually need competition is a matter of opinion. Some argue why we need it is because people are not intrinsically inclined to be self-motivated for their own betterment.
Being competitive in our academic, working and personal lives can be good for achieving success and moving ‘up the ladder’. But these positives have a negative – being competitive causes us jealously, anger, fierce rivalry and in some cases you to resent others who are seemingly doing better than you.
Being a DJ is a highly competitive job
Here’s a scenario….there’s one cake. Cut into 10 slices but there’s 15 wanting to take some cake.
What happens? 5 people miss out.
What are you going to do? Be competitive and be better than the others? Yes you can try that but it will only be an ATTEMPT. Aim to be the best you can and don’t watch the others. Miss out on the cake? Find another. Or wait until another cake is made whilst improving yourself. That’s life.
All great things in life are like a piece of cake – everyone wants some!
All great things in life are like a piece of cake – everyone wants some!
Enjoy your life and your work. Don’t take setbacks too personally. We’re all in the same race – some of us are just playing catch up.
Be your biggest competitor – challenge yourself each day to be better than you were yesterday.
kathrynbwilson 
A good discursive post about making your way in the world today!
I’d say I’m also not very competitive (even my P3 teacher recognised it). If I don’t get cake I’m not bothered, I’ll go make my own, or I’ll have trifle. When you look beyond basic living, it’s a weird system we live in. There’s a lot of needless competition that you might call greed or insecurity. I’ve fallen into debilitating thinking before like “if I get this job someone else won’t” or “if my idea takes off, people elsewhere might lose out”… usually, it’s a very big IF, but an idea might also give other people jobs or move something forward in a positive way by some other metric. Actively putting others down is a different thing.
Awareness is good, but you are right to ignore the competition and focus on yourself: if you stay true to what you feel and aim to be the best version of yourself, there is nothing to feel guilty about. If we lose out, it’s a chance for us to reflect, learn, reapply or redirect. If we win it’s a chance to develop (and of course, nothing to stop using success to help other areas).
We take part in challenge and competition for recreation: it is perhaps easier to see healthy and unhealthy ways of partaking in this form, so why not apply the healthy aspects to all of life’s competitions? Giving the best of ourselves is surely going to benefit everyone the most, and succeeding through competition is a way to be assured that you are giving the best of yourself. Better ways need to best the old, and it’s this dynamic that naturally moves us all forward.