There are plenty of people who can tell you all about competition – about how if one person wins then you must be losing; about how you need to pull people down and climb over them in order to make a name for yourself; about how you have to claw your way to the top because if you’re not there, someone else is stealing your glory.

I have never subscribed to this view of the world and the extreme interpretation of scarcity that fuels it.

Now, if you had asked me about competition a year ago, I would have said that there’s only one kind of competition you need to worry about – yourself – that is, constantly striving to push your limits and better your best. When we can keep increasing our personal records, improving our skills, and tracking the progress we’re making, that’s what matters most.

But… I’ve come to realize that even that notion is misguided. 

By employing this style of thinking we put massive amounts of undue pressure on ourselves which can end up being wildly counterproductive. If we’re talking about any sort of creative work for example, added pressure to create something better than our current best is most likely going to strip us of the needed inspiration to do just that.

It also takes a lot of the fun and levity out of what you’re doing. Sure, a lot of us probably do not use the word ‘levity’ in conjunction with our professional lives, but I’d argue that maybe we should. If we look at the phenomenon of beginner’s luck we see that people who are new to something tend to actually do better at first than those who have been at something for a while. This ‘luck’ isn’t really luck at all – it’s a relaxed mind that’s open to new opportunities, ready to learn, without insane expectations. In this context a beginner can approach something much more naturally and intuitively, while the experienced people are overthinking and, sorry to say, trying too hard. This doesn’t mean that we can never allow ourselves to get good at anything, but rather that we can learn something from this so-called ‘luck.’

And finally, there’s the added realization that we will not be able to continue beating our own records forever. Nature ensures that we find humility in the end [ideally] by granting us the gentle decline of aging. Of course we can continue with our pursuits, by all means, but at some point we will no longer be able to accomplish what our younger selves once could. This does not mean that we should stop enjoying our craft.

So my new outlook is this –

The only competition you need to worry about is the one against apathy.

If you’re engaged in what you’re doing, you will naturally be learning and growing through the process, but also feeling more and more fulfilled along the way. And as your abilities begin to dwindle due to age, illness, environmental factors, or a number of other reasons, you can have grace and compassion for yourself in knowing that even if you aren’t constantly getting better at something, you’re at least still in the game.

Delight in the process and give yourself the space and creative freedom to work. As long as you’re enjoying it, who cares if you’re not constantly one-upping yourself?!

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