Healthy Competition

What makes competition a positive force over a negative force? And what is the definition of healthy versus unhealthy competition?

“If you continuously compete with others, you become bitter, but if you continuously compete with yourself, you become better.”

Let’s start by talking about Healthy Competition.  Healthy Competition can help to motivate people to put in that extra effort and perform at a higher level than they might have done otherwise.  It can give extra drive and ambition that help someone to do more.  It can add fun and excitement to the task or project you are trying to win or succeed in.

Competition becomes unhealthy or negative when you cannot feel happy for other people who win or succeed.  Competition becomes unhealthy when you find yourself hoping that the other person will not perform well so that you will have a higher chance of winning, rather than wanting to win based on your own better effort.

“Stop competing with others. Start competing with yourself.”

The reality is that if it wasn’t for competition we might find ourselves settling for mediocrity.  So competition is important in helping push us to succeed. But it is how we decide to compete that makes it a healthy or an unhealthy experience.  If we can use competition to motivate and push us to give something our entire effort then it’s positive and healthy in our lives.  We should always hope that we can win because we gave it 100% and we should focus entirely on our own performance instead of banking on someone else doing poorly in order for us to succeed.    If we can do that then we can keep competition in our lives a healthy and positive motivator that will help us become the very best we can be.

“A flower does not think of competing to the next flower, it just blooms.”

Have an awesome day!

~Amy

2 Comments

  • Jane says:

    Perfect! And I do mean that. Totally agree with the better vs bitter. And that the way to grow is compete with myself instead of competing with others. That’s just a recipe for discouragement. One of my favorite things to keep in mind and to say out loud is Comparison is the opposite of Contentment. You are always right on track! I love your writing.

  • Moses Karema says:

    Brilliant.

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