The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive.. it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.
Albert Schweitzer
Competition is all around us .. in our business world, our education systems, sport and many forms of entertainment. It’s impossible to escape the dominance of competitive thinking and practice.
People who know me would probably describe me as an averagely competitive person. Getting me to ‘play’ might be a challenge, but when I do play, I like to win and it’s not the end of the world if I don’t. Whether it’s in my personal, social or economic life, I’ve always preferred co-operation over competition and partnership over adversarial relationships.
Somehow I had this idea that ‘competition’ is bad and I avoided it as much as possible. Recently I started to question that belief. One of the reasons was that I really enjoy watching sport and rooting for my favourite soccer team seemed hypocritical – but I still did it!
I think there are two basic approaches to competition, one creative and one destructive.
Competition as a creative force
And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.
Ayrton Senna
This approach is to use my fellow competitors to help me raise my game to the best it can be. Winning is a measure of how well I played, relative to my opponent. It feels good when I’ve won, not because I’ve beaten anyone but because I’ve performed the best I could and that was better than anyone else.
My energy is about creating the circumstances to raise both of our games to the highest level possible. I want all my competitors to be at their peak and without my full respect towards them this won’t happen.
In my view there are few things more creative and exciting to watch than two (or more) sides at the height of their game, challenging each other to more and more skill. Whether it’s in sport, business or any other endeavour.
Yes, there may be a winner and a prize. But it is the art of the competition itself that is of primary importance. It’s what we’ve created together and we can all feel proud by having taken part.
Competition as a destructive force
Racing is not what I like to do; it’s winning.
Jeff Gordon
This approach is about winning at all costs. Winning is the end and competition the means. If I approach it in this way then I may be equally focused on getting the other side to lose than on raising my own game. One upmanship and cheating (maybe even stretching the rules to the extreme) all become part of the game and my focus is to prove (to myself, and ideally the other side), that I’m better. Winning feels good, not because I’ve played the best I could, but because I’ve won.
As competition is secondary to winning it’s much less likely that we’ll create much. It may happen but is a by-product and may be more about creative ways to destroy the opposition.
I’m more interested in myself than I am in my other player and in extreme cases I want to damage my opponent – certainly I’m not at all interested in respecting them.
I don’t believe either is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ but is more about how we approach life and the people in it.
Personally I’m more interested in creative competition and avoid people who only play to win.
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With me, it all depends on my mood. Sometimes, I really enjoy competition and struggling to be the best that I can be. Other times, I get lazy and apathetic, and then competition just seems like a chore, so I’d rather not bother with it. But when I *do* compete, I play to win. I like competing, but I like winning too. So I suppose I really enjoy both the creative and destructive aspects to competition.
I know what you mean. I have moments where I get very competitive and all out to win. Not often .. but it does happen.
With me, competition is doing your best. Of course you want to win but that isn’t always the case.
Accepting defeat with the knowledge inside that you have done your best is more important to me now.
Learning how to lose gracefully and to learn is, in my opinion, more important than learning how to win.
I used to play Poker with this guy who was absolutely miserable to play with. He was really good, but the thing is, he would only play to win. If he lost, or started to lose, he’d get extremely belligerent and lose his temper. He would go on to say that he was raised that way, that you play to win. This doesn’t make any sense to me. So, in his view, does this mean that there should always be one happy player, while everyone else is miserable? Why even play a game if the majority of the players are going to be miserable?
I’m with you Ian, I prefer a much healthier approach to competition. Competition can be one of the most fun and rewarding things in this life, but some people just don’t get it!
I remember when I was a kid I was very competitive with my younger brother – who used to hate losing – which made me enjoy winning even more. Until it got to apoint where there was really no fun in it for either of us. Win or lose was painful for both. So we stopped – life’s too short to compete without joy.
Good morning Ian. I applaud your post about competition and your entire approach to “peaceful living”. Here’s something for your readers about competition. Competition isn’t about winning at all. Lotteries are about winning. Competition is about growing. Or at least it’s supposed to be. But in today’s world, “winning” is everything. If you don’t “win” you’re what we call….a loser. Even if you come in second you’re a loser. Alright, but in a world made whole again, here’s what competition would look like. Groups of people with a similar passion would compete to help each other grow. To do “their” best…..as we sometimes say. The operative words here are “their best”. By that I mean people who really know who they are would be striving to grow themselves their way. A way that would help them fulfill their potentials. Athletic folks might compete in football matches for instance, and people with great manual skills might compete in carpentry contests. And here’s where the difference between a New World and our old one comes in. In today’s world, a man with no passion for football….but skills for it anyhow….would want to compete to WIN in football. So he’s called a hero for it. But he’s being called a hero for living a lie….because that just isn’t who he is. He might be an artist…but would give up HIMSELF to win. As a matter of fact, in today’s world, people will literally destroy themselves with drugs to be called a hero for “winning”. So how on earth did we get so far off track? No longer can we see that being ourselves makes us real authentic winners of the highest possible order. No longer will we choose to grow the Way that’s right for us…..instead choosing to “win” something else at any cost. Unfortunately, at the end of a life lived like that, we pay the cost. At that Great Life Review we discover it’s revealed that we gave up the life we were meant to live….to win a trophy or gain some applause. Sad. But true. Cheers Ian and I hope many of us can help you with your aim of a peaceful world. John Duffield
John – thanks so much for this thoughtful comment. I so much enjoy your vision of a world made whole again – and I carry a lot of sadness that we sometimes seem so far away from that picture.
I believe there is no competition if we concentrate on creation!
for sure if we all carry a mentality of abundance – then we don’t need to compete at all.
Wow, this is incredibly insightful! I’ve thrived past job experiences where there was a competitive atmosphere, but it was also a team effort. We were working toward the same goal but also competing with each other, challenging each other to be our personal bests. And that felt really good, it was a super rewarding motivator.
Cheers,
Miche