Why Striving to Be the Best Is Holding You Back: Path to True Success Without Constant Competition
The idea that competition drives success is fundamentally flawed
We are taught to be the best and to excel in what we do.
The motive seems right, but the idea that competition drives success is fundamentally flawed.
In school, college, and even as adults while at the job, we are taught to be the best and compete. If you achieve high grades, a better degree, or more targets at your job, you’ll be ahead of others who didn’t.
You’re always compared, regardless of what stage of life you’re in.
Admitting it feels shameful, but I used to base my worth on how I stacked up against my peers.
What do you believe happens to the bright minds that are put into these mindless pits where everyone is programmed to win but forbidden to fail. When you do fail, you’re left feeling worthless and your self-confidence lies in shambles.
We are all taught that this is how life is supposed to go, and we still have to deal with this competition.
Does it help? Hell no!
It promotes a toxic mindset, fueling envy, jealousy, and hatred towards others at the cost of your own self-esteem, confidence, and mental well-being.
Our brains are hardwired to compare, but this ancient survival mechanism is now a source of modern misery.
The Pitfalls of Chasing To Be the Best
1. Perfectionism often morphs into obsession, sparking harmful competition and stress.
This chase of being the best has turned us into believing that we can be perfect. We have embedded the idea in our minds that nothing below perfect will be considered worthy, no matter how hard we try — so now everyone is stuck in a never-ending perfection loop.
Making everyone sacrifice their well-being to reach unrealistic goals leads to burnout.
Perfection is subjective, and thus pushing everyone into this pitfall of trying to do more and more eventually leads to stress and burnout.
This also leads to everyone fighting to surpass each other, fostering cutthroat environments. Putting others below them is now defined as a way of proving themselves to be the best.
Your only goal is to put in the effort and take a step forward without having to worry about whether it’s the best or not. You can never learn to run directly if you don’t walk, and it only starts with stumbling a few times.
2. Society pressures people to win, creating anxiety and low self-esteem.
Unrealistic expectations fuel discontent, causing individuals to feel inadequate.
We are conditioned to believe we aren’t good enough if we lose at something; we are compared to others. This system cannot help anyone flourish to their full potential rather it fuels us with anger, anxiety, jealousy, and low self-esteem.
This pursuit of excellence turns into an endless, draining rat race.
So don’t come under the pressure of beating anyone on your journey — it’s your path, and you don’t have to worry about anyone else but you.
Be willing and confident to try things in life and accept failure regardless of others’ comments. When we fail, we are forced to improve and analyze ourselves without doubting our abilities.
Stand tall, walk with confidence, and accept it. Don’t let society define your failure as a mark of incompetence.
When you shift your focus from others in the race to your own pace, you will find yourself improving. Comparison will only make you slow and doubtful in life.
3. It steals your joy right now in hopes for the future.
To be the best narrows your focus on the outcome rather than on the actions.
This makes us goal-oriented rather than action-oriented, and the goal is always in the future, which means we are always looking at the future while neglecting the action in the present that drives the goal forward.
You will always end up chasing the future dream while draining the focus and joy of doing the work right here and now.
According to neuroscience, when you think about the future, the amygdala will always cause you to feel fear and negative emotions.
You also start setting expectations of achieving something, but when it doesn’t unfold as you thought, you will become anxious and stressed. The only way to be alive and happy is to focus on what’s in front of you right now and not think about what you can get out of it.
Your one-pointedness in the present moment will help you achieve every goal you set.
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