Compete less for higher stakes.

Henry Kissinger once said: “The battles were so ferocious because the stakes were so small”. Although he said this within the context of academia, this certainly holds true for many things in this world. His statement is in fact an extension of Sayre’s law which states: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” Time Ferris in his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, alludes to this idea when he says: “The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time, and energy-consuming.”

I would like to take it a bit further. Most people are expecting the same thing out of life. They are all following the same path, with the same end in mind. Think about it for a moment. Most people are being squeezed through this life — birth, school, college, career, retirement, death. And you know what? It’s becoming more and more challenging. Few people can afford to retire comfortably. Work days are becoming longer and longer. More schooling and study is required. The workload imposed on children at school is greater than ever. Even infants are now being subjected to a slew of development programmes, therapy and intervention.

Why? The competition is just too fierce. And what is it, after all that most can hope to attain? A stressed, unhappy and mediocre life. A life which in many cases leads to an underfunded retirement and an anonymous death. A wasted life. The competition is becoming ever-fiercer for ever-smaller reward.

It is time to change your life. Start competing less for higher stakes. This means redefining what it means to be successful, and consider what is most important. Reframe your life, and change your path. Do the impossible. Buck the trend. Reject the status quo. Sail into unchartered waters and live a memorable life. A life filled with significance and adventure. There is little competition for this kind of life. After all, most people are climbing their ladders to nowhere where the competition is at its most violent.

Stop competing, and start living.