Your Main Competition

Personally, I've always been a very competitive individual. From the social basketball games I once played throughout my childhood and early twenties, to playing board games with the family, I always wanted to win. Let's be honest though, no one likes losing in anything. We know that winning always brings a hell of a lot more enjoyment and satisfaction. Despite my constant hunger to win, especially in the basketball and ten pin bowling competitions I played in, I was always gracious in defeat also, acknowledging that my opponent was just too good on the day. There would be many a time where I believed I tried my absolute hardest, yet was outplayed, so I walked away feeling content with my performance. Then there were times where I would shake hands graciously with my opponent, yet walk away feeling extremely frustrated and disappointed, because I believed I had underperformed, underachieved, and was well below my best. It's not that I wasn't trying, or that I couldn't be bothered, I just failed to execute effectively on the day. I know myself, and many others, we are all quick to judge professional athletes and sportspeople, when our team or the individual whom we are barracking for, ends up losing or underperforming. We seem to forget that despite the fact they are professionals within the sport that they play, they are also human. Even the most accomplished humans in the world have days where they fail to reach the heights they are capable of. It's just a simple fact that we can't be at our very best every day of our life, but having said that, we can at least spend every day always striving to be at our very best though.

As I mentioned above, the times I walked away feeling disappointed and frustrated, after suffering a loss in the game, it wasn't the loss itself that annoyed me, it was my own personal performance. I never really went out there with the mental attitude of just wanting to defeat my opponent, I instead went out with the mental attitude that if I brought my best, that would take me a long way to defeating them anyway. I went out there just wanting to perform better than I did the last game, and the game before that. For me, it was always about displaying continual improvement. I remember playing a basketball tournament, a number of years back now, and we came up against all these division 1 district teams, even though we were just a social team ourselves. This one particular game, going by memory, I think we got done by about 60 points in the end, but entering the game, I wasn't phased by what the scoreboard was undoubtedly going to look like. I didn't take to the court comparing myself to these opposition players, who had far greater skill and talent than I did, at the game. I just wanted to go out there and play at the best level I could. It's quite an interesting theory though, that when you come up against an opponent you know who are more advanced, talented, and proven successful, it tends to motivate you to work harder. You know you have to lift your own game. I actually played quite a respectable game, on this occasion, especially in my defense, as I would out-rebound and block these players a number of times. So despite being thrashed on the scoreboard, I walked off the court pretty proud of myself that I could actually compete respectably with those more skillful and advanced than I.

Competition can indeed be a good thing. As I said above, one of those positives to competition is that they often drive you to push yourself harder, and raise your own standards. The problem that so many people have though is, not only do they measure their own success and performance against others, they beat themselves up about it if they are not at the same level, or better. They are that influenced by their competition to the point they try to be like them, and actually they try to be them. Even if I was personally a way better basketball player than I was, I could never be NBA legend Michael Jordan. In fact, no one could be! Jordan had skills, talent, and a variety of other gifts that no one else has, or ever will, have. He is regarded by many people as being the greatest player to have ever played the game. In saying this, does that make the likes of Lebron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and Shaquille O'Neal, all unsuccessful basketball players? Of course it doesn't! These players were also extremely skillful, talented, and gifted, in their own way, and achieved wonderful careers and success themselves. Did they take to the court wanting to be Michael Jordan, and be constantly comparing themselves to him? Maybe, but I highly doubt it. I have no doubt each of these individuals would have taken to the court trying to play there upmost best, trying to win the game for their respective teams, and trying to prove themselves to be better than they were the previous game. They would have gone out there with a mission to showcase the potential they had within them, not be focused on comparing themselves to Jordan, or anyone else for that matter.

Although we should always be aware of our competition, and be aspiring to achieve such great success as they may have achieved, we should never focus on constantly measuring our own performance to theirs. In business, you may think that sounds ridiculous, as it's imperative to know where you are placed in comparison to rival businesses, but the question is, why focus on something you cannot control? You cannot change the actions of a competitor, not forcefully anyway, but you can impact them through your own actions. You have no control over their own results. What you can impact is your own business performance, and that of the staff. You can gain market share by focusing on actions that are implemented to continually improve as a business. If your focus is constantly on continual improvement, and the actions are there to support this, then naturally you can only get better. It's about having the creativity and initiative to implement ideas and actions that are going to set you apart from your competition, rather than going about just copying them. Sure, they may have some great concepts that are proving successful, and some will prove worthy of also implementing, but that doesn't mean your business can't also achieve success, by doing things differently. Success is measured by our own performance, not as a comparison to others. We have to also accept that others may also be at a different stage in their journey to where we are at personally. For example, with myself. I have been in the personal development industry for around three and half years now, and only do it on a part time basis, so it would be foolish of me to be comparing myself to the likes of Tony Robbins or Bob Proctor, for example, who have been involved in the industry for decades. Why beat myself up over having a couple of hundred followers, compared to their millions? Why should I feel unhappy and a failure comparing myself to someone with a great deal more experience?

The simple rule for us to follow in life is not to compare ourselves to others, but to compare ourselves to ourselves. Now what I mean by that is that we should be constantly measuring our own success. Our aim should be to always be better than we were yesterday, in all aspects of life. This comes from mindset training, physical training, and engaging in personal development. We can't be anyone else but ourselves, and we can only ever reach the full potential we have inside of us, not the potential of someone else. We all have our own strengths, blessings, skills, and gifts in life, and it's up to us to discover those gifts, and seek out our purpose in life. Just like myself with my ten pin bowling and basketball games of the past, and even the professional sportsmen and sportswomen of the world, you will have days where you won't reach the heights you were striving for, and you will be under par with your performance, but that's only natural. The key is to pick yourself up, and work harder the next day. Refocus! Aim to be better, aim to be stronger, aim to be more courageous, aim to be a better father, mother, wife, husband, son, daughter, or friend, aim to be more efficient at work, aim to use your time more effectively, aim to be more resilient, aim to be more patient, aim to be more caring, compassionate, and understanding towards others, and so on. The success you achieve is defined purely by what you truly desire in life, and how hard you're prepared to work for it. Whatever anyone else achieves should never change or influence that! Your main competition is you!

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