The only competition that matters is the competition with ourselves.

It has become all too normal that we compare ourselves to others around us on a regular basis. Whether it is with our co-workers, friends, role models, or even family, for some reason we find it acceptable to compare our lives with the lives of others. We think that we are going to gain something or a sense of satisfaction by constantly comparing and competing with those around us. In all reality, the only thing that comparison does, is causes us to lose sight of our goals. If you are like me and compare your life to the lives of others, do yourself a favor and stop. Life is not about competing with others. The only competition that matters in life, is the competition with ourselves.

When we hear the word “winner” a lot of us think about competition. For a lot of us, we think about beating somebody else and receiving some sense of praise for winning. But why do we always attribute winning to beating another person? Winning can come from beating yourself. How? By being the best that YOU can be, and being a better version of you than you were yesterday.

When we get caught up and focused only on competing with other people, we lose sight of who we really are. We lose sight of our dreams, of our reasonings, and we start living life for all the wrong reasons. No longer is it about chasing our own dreams and giving our dreams the effort that they require. Rather, it becomes about chasing the dreams of others and being better than everyone else at their own ambitions.

What I am about to say might offend some people, but here it goes. Fuck competing with others at things that don’t matter to us. The only competition that we should focus on, is the competition with ourselves. Life is not about keeping up with or being better than the Jones’s. Life is about being the best person that you can be, and a better person than you were yesterday.

Imagine if this was the mindset that we had on a daily basis. Imagine if we didn’t focus on being better than other people, but rather on being a better individual than we were yesterday. No more would we have to live for the acception and judgement of others, but rather only for our own perception of ourselves. This is the day that I long for.

Personally, I am a very competitive person. Whether it is looking at instagram, or seeing the people around me, I have a competitive mindset and want to be the best at everything that I do. I simply become obsessed. My work ethic, my image, sports, whatever it might be, I always want to be the best. But when it comes to obtaining goals in life, being overly competitive will only hinder our ability to be happy. Instead of driving all of our attention towards our goals, it is distributed to other areas of life that we don’t actually care about.

What we need to do is to take a step back and refocus on our thoughts. Instead of using the success of others as an excuse for our failures, we need to love the desire of growing. Who cares if we fail, it’s what makes us human. Every individual who is trying to find success and happiness is going to fail, that is just the nature of growing. We all have differences and unique attributes. It’s time we start using our differences and establish our own identity as the incredible individuals that we are.

Competing with others causes us to almost settle in life instead of trying to be the best possible person that we can be. We get too comfortable in our situations and forget to take any risk. But when we focus on the competition with ourselves, we focus on being a better individual than we were yesterday. We wake up and we are immediately provided with constant motivation and a purpose to go about our days.

Don’t go through life living for the desire and dreams of others. Live life for you. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing in life, so don’t even worry about it. Focus on the only thing that you can control in life, yourself. When we focus on the only competition that matters – the competition with ourselves, that is when we will truly find our success and when we will be happy.  

Michael Bonnell

7/30/2018

 

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