It can be extremely easy for you to compare your work with other people’s work. When you start to compete with others, you’ll continue to judge your own life and your true self values that you do not strive for. Even if you deem yourself to be more successful under their values, you’ll only be completing something important to them and not to you.
Life can be a competition, but the race that you face doesn’t have to be against anybody else. A better way to refocus your efforts and harness competition is to look in the mirror and learn how to compete with yourself.
Here are some of the benefits of refocusing your spirit of competition so that you only see yourself as a competitor:
Appreciating the work of others:
Appreciating the work that someone has done or the success they have can often be shrouded with envy when you judge yourself against somebody. When you are competing with others, you will stop appreciating their work, and it will be difficult for you to recognize and appreciate their efforts.
Healthy competition is good when we are learning from other people, but when we grow too competition-focused, we will begin to compare ourselves to others and stop looking at their efforts as a benefit to them accomplishing their values. A person staying true to themselves and striving for what they believe in is worth celebrating.
Learning new things from teammates:
When you get too wrapped up in the idea of besting another person, it is challenging to establish a quality relationship with them. If you can finally work together with people and focus on learning from one another, you can share knowledge and grow.
Restricting yourself by placing energy into making others look bad or working to best others will have you living your life with blinders on. It is hard for you to relate to them when you see them as a constant competition, it will be more difficult to learn from people as peers.
Learn along the journey:
We are a very results-driven society. People like to speak about their accomplishments and the achievements that they get. What is really worth embracing along the way is the training and the knowledge you accumulate as you accomplish a goal.
Refocusing your mind to embrace your strengths and the knowledge that you have built is more important than looking at results.
A great example of this might be someone on a football team. We always expect someone to describe their accomplishments on a football team as the trophies and championships they have won. But, someone who had played football for years and never won a championship should also have the right to talk about the experience they had, how they learned about teamwork, how they got stronger, and how they made a few great plays along the way using their skills.
Focus on your prime skills:
When we spend time competing with ourselves rather than constantly chasing the competition, we can learn what skills can be truly valuable to us and what we are good at. Taking on new skills can be important, but when we are constantly competing with others that may already have expertise in that skill, we will feel frustrated.
You should improve the areas that you are best in and focus on new skills you can build without getting as frustrated in reaching that expert level. You could be competing in the wrong skill just because it is of value to someone else. Hone the skills you want to improve.
Stop sabotaging others:
It can be common to sabotage others when you feel like you are in direct competition with them. You will eliminate the negative thoughts you may have when considering your values and competing only with yourself.
There will always be someone better than you:
True champions and experts in a skill are rare. Being the best at something is not a place where you have to be, any small improvement can be celebrated. When we accept the fact that there will always be someone better than you, we can work at feeling better about the improvements we make over time.
Keep some of these ideas in mind as you are working to compete more with yourself rather than with others.
