Stop Competing with others, Compete with yourself

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful…..that’s what matters to me”               – Steve Job

In the workplace, people have to work together to achieve certain objectives. But there is always competition in the air. People have to prove themselves better than others to achieve good hikes and promotions. In the current scenario of a private organization, an appraisal system where HR asks to show what you have done excessively for the organization, then they follow a bell curve(Bell curve means only a few will be on top) and tell everyone that only a few percentages of people will get a handsome hike and promotion. Hence race begins to show themselves better than others. People fall into the competition to achieve more. Eventually, this creates the environment which we call “Politics” within the organization where people are supposed to work together as a team, but eventually become part of a rat race.

Is this correct? Is a competition bad?

No, absolutely not. Competition is good as long as people are taking it healthy or with a positive attitude. But normally it involves Jealousy or Envy. When we feel and try to be better than someone, but do not act on those feeling called Jealousy. This feeling eats one up from the inside, but when one does not act on those feeling its turns into envy. Competition in sports is good, till it’s fair. Competition is found in all spheres of life, for instance, sports, business, politics, and the workplace. Competition in business till it focuses on business objectives without harming others. Competition in politics is good until it is ethical and not converting into dirty politics and focuses on people’s welfare.

The bigger question is “Whom we are competing with”. People with a closed mindset want to grow by defeating others and people with an open mind grow by developing themselves. We normally see the new version of the software, Operating system, and new version of phones. People usually want the new version of everything and move out from the old versions. But never make changes in themselves over the year. Not adding any new skills and keeping similar thoughts past many years. This is the main reason that they are not getting the growth and just dragging themselves in this competitive environment. So the biggest competition for us is with ourselves. The biggest example is A P J Abdul Kalam, who inspires many students and many professionals. He believes that every day there should be a change in yourself. You should be able to compare yourself today with yesterday and you should be able to differentiate both versions.

Competing With Yourself Is the Best Way to Learn Anything

The best competition should be with yourself. Try to become better versions of yourselves compared with yesterday. Even tiny growth would be sufficient. We should be striving to do our best to realize our dreams about our future selves rather than feeling insecure about others going ahead. This will keep our minds free from jealousy or envy or insecurity rather this will help us to reach our fullest potential, bringing immense success and a deep sense of satisfaction.  

When you are competing yourself then you can set up a benchmark for yourself and you can try to cross the benchmark every day. This will takes you to new heights of success. Nobody is better than you, so you can define yourself and chase your new goals to achieve. The best example of competing yourself is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. If he would be competing with other companies then Apple won’t be Apple. People desperately waiting for the new version of the Apple iPhone or iPad. People buy their products on the very first day of release. Steve Jobs believed that competing with others was a distraction from your own inner creativity.

The bottom line is, that we should always compete ourselves and act on it. This hard work on self-improvement to achieving excellence.

Guys, my thoughts about competition is clear, you are unique, and comparing yourself with other will degrade your value. Hence don’t compare apples with oranges and keep working to improve yourself further on regular basis. Setup your long/short term goals and keep working to improve further. This will help you to achieve your goals.