Posted: 3/26/2009 | Happiness	Comments
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Competition and Us Versus Them

Any Blog I write I have to feel inspired. Today’s inspiration came from a client I was with.  I found myself thinking about how everyone feels the need to constantly compare and think about the competition.

All the reality shows are based on winning the competition. Marketing has you look at your “competition.” Most of the way people think is about competition or being better than someone else. When we are competing we are comparing.

When we look at others and think we look better or worse. When we see what others have and say “we wish” or “we are glad we don’t,” we are comparing. In the job hunt, at our current job, in romance as well as other places, we are scared that we are being compared to others.  It’s us verses them and “winning” is the ultimate goal.   

Now, on one level we are competing. If there is only one job, an employer will decide between this person and that person but the decision will not always be based on the person with the “best” qualifications. Often when we are our best self we will get the job, We later discover that the final decision was based on the gut feeling of the employer, not on what we had that was better then the others.

It isn’t that we aren’t mindful of how others are being viewed as a way to educate ourselves with what we are doing but, in reality, it is very hard to make a valid comparison because we are all very different people.

We can only be us! That is all we can be. That doesn’t mean we don’t or can’t learn others skills but we will still be us doing this skill. Throughout our lives our primary job is to be our absolute best. Not perfect, but the best we can be at any given moment. That’s what is possible. So having thinner thighs than X or making more money than Y is only more comparing which ultimately leads to unhappiness. Someone will always be better at something than we are and someone else will be worse. It is endless.

Go and be your best self. This will take inner work and outer work. You came to the person that you are. Enjoy this life. Embrace yourself!