Moving on slightly from my last post, I’m going to refine things a little. Competition has great effects, it is a positive thing but I feel that it can become negative when we get too caught up in it. Our sense of perspective suffers and it becomes all about beating another person or team. My view is that competition is about refining our own abilities and comparing them to others in order to see where our flaws are and learn more about whatever our craft is.
Suppose we overfocus on the beating others part? Well, I don’t consider that to be very healthy as your focus is entirely on the adrenaline rush of winning, if your only desire is to beat everyone in sight then sooner or later you’re going to get a nasty shock as there’s always someone out there better than you. The result? Suffering.
If we don’t get too attached to the result of competition, we don’t suffer when we lose and we’re less likely to go to dangerous extremes to win. With the bruised ego out of the way, we can better see our flaws and compensate for them and we’re less likely to hurt ourselves and others.
We need to realise one important truth, whatever the prize, whatever it is you’re competing for, it’s temporary. The only truth is change, and in light of that are many of the goals that we set and especially those that are set for us quite so all important?
Lewis says:
It’s interesting that when I was younger I played a lot of sport, and then came a time when I stopped. I had gone the other way in fact, my lack of competitiveness meant I had no interest in sports. I realize now this is not the enlightened view it appears - I was attached to non-competitiveness in a way that meant I didn’t like to beat others. In fact, any small games I would play I would often lose for others (who winning mattered to) to win.
I think the real truth is as you said, to learn to compete, or not, remembering that winning and losing is duality and subject to change and being temporary, but always valuing the game, the chance to play, and the chance to improve ourselves.
10 March 2007, 6:08 pm