Is Competition Chipping Away at Your Soul?

While business students are taught that competition is great for business, it is possible for competition to be taken to another level that can be toxic. On one hand, competition is good for business, because it gives business owners an earmark, so they can know whether or not they are keeping up with the best in their field, and whether or not they are being successful.

However, when it comes to our personal relationships, being competitive might come natural, but it can become a very toxic thing if we don't keep it in check. We learn to be competitive growing up, because we grew up competing for the attention of our parents. As such, we might find that we compete with siblings, and when we go to school, we compete for recognition, such as being the pretties, or the smartest, or the fastest.

Competition becomes toxic when competitiveness turns into jealousy. When a person is jealous, it's as if they're taking their inadequacies and their self loathing, and they are lashing out on other people about their feelings. People who are jealous who are suspicious and intolerant of others. Jealousy flat out is a form of hatred. No one wants to be seen as jealous or hateful, yet if a person doesn't keep on top of their competitive feelings, the competitiveness, coupled with inadequacy turns into toxic jealousy.

The key to keeping one's healthy self-esteem while being competitive in a healthy way, is to know a few things. First, they have to know this is a big world with enough room for all the talented people in it. This leads to the second point, which is everyone isn't going to be good at everything. There is always going to be someone more talented than us in a certain area. Someone will always be more pretty, or more handsome. Someone will always be smarter. You could go on and on, but the fact is that jealousy is a waste of time, because they're always is going to be someone who is better than you and at the same time, you might be better than someone else!

They're all sorts of ways that we can be winners. A secure person knows that they can be competitive without being jealous, because there is a niche for their particular talents. On the other hand, the person who has a healthy competitive spirit understands that we can't win them all. This is just a fact of life that we all have to deal with. One more thing to keep competitive feelings in check, is to be happy for the success of other people. It's okay to want to be like someone, or to aspire to be like someone. Jealousy is never okay. Jealousy takes away the joy of life, and you should be enjoying your life. When you learn to be compassionate with yourself, and when you learn to take pride in what you have to offer the world, then you won't have room in your mind or your heart for jealousy.