Winners and Losers, and Those That Don’t Compete

What makes people so competitive?  Some people argue that it’s genetic.  Others believe it’s a more psychological cause, like a thirst for admiration or attention or a need to prove themselves.  I think that both are true in some cases.  Some people are raised to be competitors, some people just come by it naturally.  But is it really such a bad thing?

Everything in life can be made into a competition, and most things have been.  You can find reality TV shows with topics that range from finding a spouse to becoming more beautiful to redesigning your house.  Even if you try to avoid it, competition is a part of your life whether it’s for a job, a promotion, or even in the academic arena for valedictorian status.   I guess it’s not as much about finding out what makes people competitive as what makes competition so appealing to such a large percentage of the population.

For example, in my own experience I have found that I am more motivated to lose weight by eating healthy and exercising when it’s some form of competition.  Whether it be a competition within my own house, or in my workplace as it is this time,  I am just more motivated to work harder than if I was competing against just myself.  What does that say about me as a person?  It doesn’t even have to be a matter of winning for me.  I am relatively certain I will not win our workplace competition, and yet, I am more excited about my weigh in each week knowing that my friends and coworkers are also weighing in.  I don’t even need to lose more than the other people who share their relative success or failure, I am genuinely happy for those that also do well, but something about the word “competition” makes the idea that much more appealing.

I know plenty of people out there who fit the stereotypes of people who compete to make themselves feel better.  I know girls that have to be better at things than anyone else or else they feel their self-worth slipping.  I know people who feel like the always have something to prove.  I also know people who are on the other end of the spectrum who never feel the need to compete at all.  People who actively avoid competition, not because it scares them but because it doesn’t mean anything to them.  You have to wonder if these people’s lives are a little less stressful than the rest of us. 

Even so, I do think that some amount of competition is a good thing.  Especially if you can approach it in a healthy way.  If you are a person who can’t be anything other than the winner, I think life will be more difficult for you.  But if you are a person who can embrace a competition for the good aspects it provides, motivation to do better, a sense of satisfaction at a job well done, then a bit of competition will probably only make you stronger.