Not Everything Has To Be A Competition
People on twitter got really upset at Hollywood Report for this tweet where they stated that A Wrinkle In Time was losing to Black Panther at the box office.
First of all, those two movies are both outstanding movies made by two outstanding directors.
They are not in competition.
They are both making history and standing side by side for the same purpose.
But then this got me thinking about how our society really relies on competitions.
I mean, I love competitions just as much as the next human being but at the same time I’m very iffy about them…
For instance, I love the x-factor but at the same time I don’t really like it because it always seems like when someone doesn’t win it’s the end of the world but to me, I think that everyone is talented and they are all winners in my eyes. And I wish that they could all win.
My point is that, winning is not everything.
Especially winning against other people.
I get how and why it seems like winning is everything to us but at the same time, I don’t really get it…
And what worries me is when I see that thirst for competitions and comparisons in children.
This mindset starts early on at school.
The grading system not only tells you how you did but it also allows you to compare yourself to others.
I work with children and let me tell you that it’s really upsetting when I see 6 to 10-year-olds tell each other “what grade did you get? What! you only got 3 A’s? And then a B? Hahaha”
This is terrible.
And I really don’t like how children are treating each other with this sense of superiority.
A “B” does not stand for “bad” and yet those children are teasing each other because someone might have had one grade that was less than “perfection”.
Perfection… Another concept that we instill on our children very early on…
This mentality of thriving for perfection and for wanting to be the best, as in “better than everyone” and not “better than yourself”, is so wrong!
And yet, we keep on encouraging this behavior.
It’s at school.
It’s on TV.
It’s at work.
It’s now all over social media.
It’s everywhere in your everyday life.
Everything is a competition and we’re all competing against each other in one way or another.
But not everything has to be a competition.
Actually, nothing really is a competition.
We treat everything as a competition because that’s just what human beings do.
And we all know that human beings can be pretty stupid sometimes…
And I think this mentality is just one of those stupid things that human beings do…
It doesn’t help anybody to compare, to compete or to thrive for perfection.
And I really wish that we could get rid of those concepts.
I mean, in theory they seem great.
It sounds like it pushes some people to do more and learn more and grow more and do better.
It seems like it gets people going.
But once something is a competition that means that someone can be better than someone else and that’s not really how I want to see myself, ever!
I am not better than anyone.
Never was and never will be.
I am just a human being doing my best to live my life authentically.
The way that I decide to live my life is not better or worst than someone else’s way, but it’s simply just right for me.
To me, there’s no need to compete or to be better than or to be perfect.
The only thing that we need to do is to be authentic and to live authentically.
Whatever that means to you.
I know that we won’t ever get rid of competitions and comparisons because it’s just something that human beings do, to entertain ourselves or to push ourselves or for whatever reasons. But I really hope that people can realize that not everything has to be a competition and that nobody is actually competing against anybody.
The only person that we’re competing against is ourselves.
This is such a cliché but it’s true.
So aim to be better, to do better, to be authentic and to live authentically instead of aiming to be better than, to do better than, to be perfect and to have a life that will make other people jealous of you.
Not everything has to be a competition…
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