Is life winner take all or is it a collaborative victory? How can you reflect on your level of competitiveness to better understand how you see the world? I’ll offer some considerations on competition itself and how the degree of an individual’s pursuit of competition can aid in their journey of deeper self-awareness.
The nature of our economic model demands some level of competition as a free market is one of scarce resources. This establishes opportunity costs with the root resource being time and the common substitute being currency. Even with an altruistic output such as art, the individual purchasing art sacrifices the opportunity to purchase an alternate good or service. Therefore, competition is far from obsolete, but as an individual there is considerable freedom in one’s pursuit or avoidance of competitive situations and behaviors.
Sports are a great example of competitive activities and can help reveal an individual’s comfort level with competitive behavior. As a modern day representation of our evolutionary survival instincts, sports allow individuals to act on our desire to affiliate with a tribe in pursuit of a common goal. The degree you seek out sports and revel in its competitive nature can be a strong clue about your comfort, or pursuit of, conflict. I frame sports as an inherently conflict driven experience because games are typically zero sum, which is to say the winner does so at the expense of a loser. Alternatively, I believe there is more potential in current society to simply offer value to your fellow man and be compensated for that value without the need to intentionally take opportunity away from others.
Art would be a possible example of that since I generally wouldn’t state that an artist is directly competing with other artists. Is there a clear choice between artistic outputs where consumers choose only one musical artist, actor, TV show, or painter to patronize? I think not, the topic is far more complex. From an economic industry level, studios and networks certainly employ artists in the competition against one another, but the individual artists don’t have to be pitted against each other to succeed. In evaluating your preference for more passive consumption of media as opposed to competitive hobbies like sports, you may begin to use real life behavior to understand your personal appetite for competition, and thus conflict.
Given an individual’s freedom to chose their personal level of competition, I propose that balance is an appropriate objective. At either extreme, an individual is either belligerently competitive to the point of being unable to coexist with others, or so conflict avoidant that they retract from society. The underlying traits in both cases may be similar; a lack of social interaction, skewed self-image, and fear of inadequacy. Unbalanced competitive behavior can manifest as either overcompensating behavior, or complete conflict avoidance. Ultimately, our level of competitiveness can be a symptom of a deeper dysfunction.
We should reflect on this trait and inquire into its source. The trail may help reveal some unrecognized truths. Consider your hobbies, interests, and profession. Clearly sports are rooted in zero sum theory where tribal mentality compels the seeking of victory over a competing tribe. Similarly, sales jobs are rooted in competition against peers and even the customer. Hobbies like video games are often competition based pursuing domination of competing teams or individuals. Have you placed yourselves into these types of settings or have you avoided them entirely?
In seeking balance to this behavior, I believe most individuals would benefit from applying effort to place their competitive behavior towards a more centered position. Those who’s personal life is dominated by competitive hobbies, professions, and interests may unknowingly come to seek compensation from their interactions with others, framing the world as a zero sum equation. Conversely, an individual predominantly exhibiting passive behaviors favoring solitary hobbies and avoiding conflict may be challenged to understand the value they can offer and defend their self-worth. We should acknowledge our tendencies towards extreme behavior, investigate it, and based on its source we should consider neutralizing it.
In reflecting on my own personal competitiveness, I am generally conflict avoidant and not competitive at all. It has been a journey to seek out some competition but in a healthy and productive manner. Ultimately I found value in a common cliché, your only competition should be with the person you were yesterday. It achieves a level of balance in allowing you to seek out conflict but in a productive manner which maintains humility in respect to others.
This approach compels the positive aspects of competing, the urgency and pressure to improve, without pitting yourself against those you may have nothing in common with. This compels you to be a better individual, in service to the world, without feeling the need to “win” at the expense of others. A “taking” mentality is one of fear and scarcity as opposed to a “giving” mentality of abundance and adding value. Once you realize that everything we place value in was made up by some other human, you realize your freedom to invent value as well.
