Unhealthy Competition

All around the world schools are vying for more students, companies setting and maintaining higher standards, sports teams rivaling each other for trophies, countries battling for supremacy, and tons of other examples of competition.

Competition is good, healthy even because it brings out the most creative parts in people: we have heard of business wars between Adidas™ and Nike ™, sporting rivalries between Messi and Ronaldo, e.t.c., these are all rivalries that pushed opposing parties to their maximum capacities so they could deliver the best goods.

I remember a story I once read of a man who missed a turn trying to outrun the person in front of him. I thought it was a joke until I had a similar experience.
Early one morning I went for a run. On my way back there were three boys ahead of me, jogging- mostly to show off than to keep fit. 
I covered and got level with them, then I maintained my pace so we could go together but they thought I wanted to overtake them. They kept increasing tempo, forcing me to reciprocate so I could keep up with them.

We kept on for a little while until I got fed up. I picked up speed, zoomed past them, and got to my final turn. It felt so great...until I felt my legs start to buckle under me; I felt sick and couldn't wait to throw myself on the bed.

I thought I was in a healthy competition with those other guys, but I really wasn't; I only wanted to show them that whatever they did, I could do better, but like the man who missed his turn desperately trying to outrun another, I got myself winded and sick trying to prove a point that did not exist to people I didn't even know.

When you compete, do it to see how far you can go, how good or better you can be, but do not compete for show-off or to destroy someone else; you could end up destroying yourself as well, you might even be the only one who gets hurt.

Focus and compete with yourself, focusing too much on others may mean that your happiness depends on them. You are better than that.

Comments

  1. Abraham Chinonso AugustineAugust 17, 2020 at 4:08 AM

    I agree Banret! We lose focus on what really matters when its becomes about "outdoing" the other person. It's about outdoing ourselves, improving ourselves and beating our own records

    ReplyDelete

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