We live in a society whose principles could best be described by a simple phrase: The Best of the Best. We all want nothing but to be the absolute best that we can be at everything. This is not a bad thing! For many of us though, this means that we live our whole lives constantly competing against others. Too many, this seems like a disadvantage, and we wish for nothing but all of these competitors to disappear in order to claim our place as the greatest at whatever we choose. The truth is though that competition is not only healthy, but a necessity!
Competition pushes us to try new things. When there is no competition people feel no reason to expand their abilities. Humans are creatures of habit and because of this we will latch onto things that we are comfortable with. In nature this is a strength as it decreases the chance of us taking unnecessary risk. In the modern world though, habit can become synonymous with laziness. Far too often people with a particular skill will find one specific thing regarding that skill that they can do easily, and then they will do nothing but that. This is the death of creativity and completely stunts people's growth! When people find themselves in situations where they must compete against others, habitual arts are harder to develop. Sticking to the same thing over and over becomes repetitive and the second someone offers something new everyone will jump on their bandwagon. By constantly trying to one-up each other, artists, writers, speakers and other people of talent find themselves experimenting.
Competition is the cause of improvement. Like how it can lead to new ideas, competition can also lead to old ideas being refined. When people feel upstaged by others or like they have something to lose, they begin to take closer looks at what they do than before. They stop looking for things they do right and instead look for things they do wrong. This self-criticism causes people to become more aware, and through awareness they turn old failures into new victories. It can be hard to look at ourselves and ask, "What are you doing wrong," but no coach knows you as well as you do.
Competition inadvertently creates partnership. Just like how it can cause people to look at others with spite and as enemies, competition can create friendship and happiness. Healthy competition is not people with bitter rivalries who try to thwart each other. A competition like this is only degrading all parties involved. In a truly competitive environment people have like minds try to do better than each other but also in doing so learn from each other. Many times these competitions lead to people of similar interest coming together. It may be hard to see, but competition, in one way or another, is almost always a team effort.
So don’t fret when you hear the new kid on the block can hit a baseball farther than you, or that new girl in class amazed everyone with her drawing, or whatever situation you find yourself in. This is not the end of your greatness. This is just the start of your rise.
