“Competition”– what does that bring to mind?
Are you competitive? Too competitive or not competitive enough? Or does it depend? And what is competition?
This article is about understanding competition, so you may use it in the bigger picture to help yourself and others.
There are many areas included within “competition,” and it’s not all back or white. Let’s explore some of the important distinctions to understand, which can make a big difference in your daily life and lifetime.
To get a fuller picture, it helps to see the other side of competition: cooperation. You could consider these two approaches as complementary, as yin and yang or feminine and masculine.
Wallace Wattles’ Planes
Wallace Wattles in The Science of Getting Rich a century ago referred to the “Competitive Plane” as a place of greed, impulse and lack. All of these qualities are part of competition’s shadow side. The dark side of competition feeds on manipulation, profits over people, and degrading the physical environment.
Wattles recommended rising to the “Creative Plane,” where you transcend the limits of this kind of competition. From a higher level, spirit prevails with love, unity and unbounded possibility. More about this important point in a minute.
Healthy Competition
Yet competition has a good side, one that is necessary for success and growth. Healthy competition brings out our personal best. In addition to individual advancement, competition helps groups and companies to excel and be creative and innovative.
It helps the world be a better place and many breakthroughs are a result of healthy competition.
Cooperation — Light and Dark
Cooperation balances competition. Using a cooperative spirit, a person or group can also gain a healthy “competitive edge.” Cooperation includes working together (teamwork), connecting with others and sharing.
On the shadow side, cooperation can lead to pleasing, co-dependence and poor boundaries. When we are too cooperative, our competitive spirit might be squashed.
Although well intended, our efforts to get along “at whatever costs” might be too idealistic and impractical.
Cooperation and Competition
Cooperation is one part of the equation. So too is experimenting, pushing limits and intense effort to create value and success.
We all have needs and desires, which is what the marketplace serves. Businesses succeed when they provide things people want and need and are willing to pay for.
Similarly with sports. There is definitely a place for cooperation and teamwork here. Energy and focus is a big part too.
If you are playing just for fun, that may be one thing. But even so, a game without intense effort, without a competitive focus, will be a dull game. To excel, you need to give it your all and play full out.
Your Competition Checklist
To get a sense of how you can have healthy competition work for you, consider the following questions…
* Do you have any fears about competition?
* Do you judge yourself and others for being competitive?
Can you see the positive side of competition? (Take an example to test this out, say an area you are trying to achieve something in your life, in sports or business for instance.)
How can you use healthy competition to help yourself and others?
Conclusion
We need both competition and cooperation to fully succeed and grow. Healthy competition brings out the best in ourselves. We also need to learn to cooperate, including working with others who have different values and backgrounds than ourselves.
Returning to an earlier point, Wattles “Creative Plane” is where everything comes together and transforms. When we connect with the higher planes, spirit shows us the boundless and timeless.
With this higher sense, competition and cooperation really work well together. Love and creativity thrive.
So compete, giving it your best, producing excellence, without becoming obsessed by competition or its results.
Cooperate, connect and work with others without losing yourself in the process.
And stay connected with your soul and intuition to truly excel.
