Although you may think of competition as something you watch on television or at your local sports complex, do you realize that some elements of competition permeate your life in all sorts of other ways? From the time of our birth we have been competing with others and ourselves. We learn to walk by competing with ourselves and doing better and better. When we’re playing as kids, there was always a game where there was a winner and the rest of the gang.
There are winners and there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win – Les Brown
Welcome back to Barrworld.com and today we are talking about competition and how it can move us forward to achieve our goals.
People are naturally competitive. You just have to get together with a group of people and listen. Soon you will start to see them trying to one up the other person. They will talk about their health or their job, or their kids. Competition is not a bad thing in fact it can motivate you to do better next time.
Let’s look at the benefits of healthy competition:
Competition will cultivate creativity. Competing in sports, business, or your personal life gives you a chance to show others what you can do. It also shows you what others are doing and you can adapt you approach.
- Developing your creativity can help you be better at other endeavors you hope to accomplish in life. Competing draws out your creative nature and allows you to practice being creative.
- Through competition you get view new ideas so you can change. You can take 2 new ideas and adapt them to see if you can improve your approach.
“I’m not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance.” – Celine Dion
When you compete, you have the opportunity to strategize. How will you figure out how to make it through the maze of your current challenges? It’s good for you to ponder how you want to play a situation so you can design your own plan of action.
- Building your strategic skills during competition can transfer into other areas of your life. Keep sharpening those skills because they will come in handy in the future.
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. –Jim Rohn
3. Learn to fight fair. In order to take part in healthy competition, you must follow the rules and know how to fight fairly. If you’ve competed in sports in the past, you know that you win some and lose some.
- Avoid focusing on the outcome. Instead, realize that you learned the rules of the game and how to fairly compete within certain guidelines.
- Regardless of your walk of life, it’s helpful knowing how to compete with integrity.
- When you stay within the parameters of fairness, you can gain closure, knowing that you fought a good fight and that nobody lost.
- Never cheat to win. You might get away with it but you’ll know and you cannot afford the price you will pay.
I can never fear that things will go far wrong where common sense has fair play. –Thomas Jefferson
Cooperation is the key to success. You likely learned cooperation through taking part in activities and playing sports as a youngster. Did you ever think that knowledge would last for so many years to come? Cooperation will often help you get ahead in life.
- Think about the benefits of being on a team, whether at work or at play. How exciting is it to work with others towards a common goal and achieve success?
- Whether the goal was to win a soccer game, complete a project at work, or sell a certain amount of goodies at a bake sale, you saw the positive results that come from working harmoniously with others.
The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress. – JC Penny
How you view your own abilities is important. What kind of competitor are you? When you see yourself as a strong competitor, you’ll likely embrace competition and succeed in life. This is true whether you are on the basketball court, at home playing a video game, or in the boardroom interviewing for your dream job.
- You have skills and abilities that are given to you and you alone. Make sure you find your skills and learn to compete in your field where you can win. If you can’t boil water without burning it, don’t enter a cooking contest.
Striving to achieve is powerful. The feeling you get when you compete is unmatched by anything else in life. This element of competition beats all the others, hands down. When you truly want to win at something, you’ll pull out all the stops to attain it.
- The passion you feel for the “game” at hand will drive you forward to make the goal, win the race, or complete the project.
- Never underestimate the incredible power of your will to compete. This drive will eventually help you to fulfill your dreams.
“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.” — Zig Ziglar
The elements of competition are a big part of our makeup. Regardless of the situation, it’s a fact that you flourish in life when you decide to join in and compete. Tap in to your competitive spirit to achieve whatever it is that you want. The possibilities are endless!
God Bless and lets chat soon
Percy
PS. Leave a comment and tell me what you think or drop me an email
percy@choosesuccess.ca