People seem to be living in a fantasy world, thinking that each one of them is equal and that things labeled as competitions or losers do not exist. To an extent, parents have viewed competitions as a murky world because it puts much pressure on their children while trying to be the best. Competition can cause stress and leave individuals feeling very disappointed at times. On the other hand, being regarded as the winner feels good, the positive aspects associated with it like trophies and physical fitness, but what about when others are regarded as losers? In today’s world, competition has been the order of the day. It is everywhere in the world, be it in schools, homes, and workplaces. Nevertheless, have we thought, is competition a good thing for us?
In life, we live every day; competition has become an essential part of it. Clearly, the evolution theory explains that from the very first day humans existed in the earth, species all over the world unswervingly involved in a competitive life scuffle. Love stated, “Healthy competition is good for all. Dealing with wins and losses in any competitive arena is like getting an immunity shot against disease” (2016). She states that competition is necessary for developing tomorrow’s leaders. It is because it helps in building emotional and social intelligence (EQ and SI, respectively) strengths that are essential in building and consolidating relationships. Love explains that in being tomorrow’s leader, having developed these strengths will take you to the top. These can only be attained in competition, and in time people can develop superior awareness of their own emotions as well as others and the knowledge of managing those emotions in a way that all will benefit.
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For example, the Scouts motto is, “Be prepared.” It means that individuals have to stay ready in their minds and body to handle their duties. By preparing efficiently and knowledgeably, overcoming hurdles would be natural. In this case, “surprises” get minimized, and in case any arises, controlling it will be easy. These lessons are invaluable in our lives. Competitions teach people on how analyzing performance is done. Through this, people can learn where they went wrong and develop strategies in minimizing future occurrences of the same. By looking closely at both the mental and physical performance elements, the competitor’s performance significantly improves (Love, 2016). It teaches essential future life lessons. For example, when a person misses on a job interview, physical determinants such as a resume that is poorly put down or mental determinants like being much focused on having the job other than responding correctly to the questions in the best way possible could have been the reason.
It is because children participating in these games do not always win, but they can acquire essential social skills when they interact with other children. More so, while doing so, they learn the values associated with hard work and hence develop confidence and self-efficacy (McGuinness, 2020). More so, competitions provide a vigorous background for children enabling them to learn about being team players. In cooperative games, these children learn about solving problems in teams and not individually, thus helping them in learning enduring skills associated with working towards the achievement of a common goal. In cooperative competitions, children can learn about participating to win and winning gracefully.
Competition, in most instances, acts as a form of encouragement to people. It encourages us to be creative in many ways. It encourages and enables us to be a few steps ahead of others. Competing encourages people to not only come out of their comfort zones but also to think out of the box. Thus, it encourages the development of new ideas that appear different from the others within the team. In workplaces, competition has its benefits too. It is asserted that it increases the performance outcomes of individuals as well as that of an organization. It allows people to seek opportunities in which they prove their competence (Lopez et al., 2017). The competitive climate in places of work proves to be motivational as personnel identifies the challenges brought to them by the competition. In this case, employees learn about maintaining and promoting empathy, care, inventiveness, and reverent staff-relationships towards all members of the team, thus creating a team-oriented mindset within an organization. The competition dedicated to personal endeavors is deemed healthy as it works in excelling individuals.
It teaches us about setting goals. It is because competitions endorse growth within us and fighting towards achieving these goals, we grow. Naturally, when faced with the need to achieve individual goals in life, people have to compete with others, and in competing, they have to grow. Being able to create and set achievable goals is an essential part of being involved in competitive settings. It enables focusing in the direction and representing views about what to achieve (Love, 2016). Competition goals promote vital time management skills amongst the participants. More so, people learn on the strategies to improves one’s skillsets and be able to handle pressure as well as a rebound from it. While competing, individuals deal with struggling and harsh conditions while at the same time trying to give out their best. In this case, people’s self-esteem grows; hence they get to know their capability boundaries. Competition not only helps in improving ourselves but also in helping individuals in reaching their potential. Training and focusing on enduring own and professional growth are the key to competing. Building plans dedicated to goals of self-improvement is the need to engage in competitions.
On the other hand, competition is considered a hostility recipe. When contesting, not everybody wins. In children, it is worse because they can view others as obstacles to their success. Competition renders it challenging to consider others as possible friends because if not today, tomorrow you could be my rival. Trying to outdo others is not encouraging to trust. Trusting someone gaining from one’s failure is irrational. In other words, competition makes it possible for people to view others with narrow eyes and, at times, attracting aggression. Relationships get strained to the point of breaking (Khon, 1987).
Additionally, competition is considered to choke performance. Experiences from the competition are sometimes perceived to be threatening. By activating a child’s threat mode, its survival emotions regarding fear and anger are triggered, thus filling the central brain dispensation space that is used for complex thinking. More so, it triggers injury as intensities of the competition increases overtime (Harrison, 2017). When physically underprepared and in other instances when competing too much, the body fails to handle the pressure hence increasing the likelihood of developing injuries. In other instances, competition is associated with students dropping out of school. When perceived as incompetent and when incapable of demonstrating acceptable achievements, individuals might lose their motivation to continuing to work hard. As a result, drawing pleasure from other activities becomes inevitable. It may lead them to drop out of school.
When competing with the essence of seeking attention and validation, the competition is deemed unhealthy. It not only creates self-doubt but also makes others feel insecure. It impacts destructively on an individual’s performance ability while preventing them from competing at their maximum potential (Khon, 1987). It is self-focused as it prevents one from competing as a team or a community. Additionally, when competing for diminishing others, the competition becomes unhealthy as well. Sabotaging the performance of others makes competition not good for anybody involved. It is because diminishing others demotivates, hurts others, and eats at the core of the individuals dealing with it. While competing with the disproportional emphasis on winning at all costs renders the competition unhealthy. People should value the process that is involved in the attainment of the win. Focusing on the outcome as a sole focus is misleading because it endorses the idea that it takes “whatever it takes” in achieving the win (Love, 2016). With such a mentality, bad decisions and immoral practices can result.
In conclusion, competition at times can be viewed as a recipe for hostility, and unhealthy competition can negatively impact on both individuals and the whole team. Competition is deemed unhealthy if individuals do it to seek validation and attention; in some instances, it can result in injuries and poor performance. On the other hand, competition is essential in developing tomorrow's leaders by instilling in them the emotional and social intelligence to enable them to connect well with other people. Competition is not only used as a form of encouragement but also helps in setting achievable goals. It encourages us to keep improving and do better in the future. It teaches us the importance of being in a team and the essence of cooperation to achieves set goals. It helps us in keeping prepared and be aware that success is not for the best and the brightest in society but for everyone engaging in healthy competition. So yes, competition is good for us.
References
Harrison, C. (2017). 5 Reasons Why Competition is Good (and bad) for your Child - AUT Millennium News. AUT Millennium News. Retrieved 1 April 2020, from https://news.autmillennium.org.nz/athlete-development/5-reasons-competition/.
Khon, A. (1987). The Case Against Competition - Alfie Kohn. Alfie Kohn. Retrieved 1 April 2020, from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-competition/.
Lopez, V., Sayers, J., & Cleary, M. (2017). Competitiveness in the Workplace: Attributes and Team Benefits. Issues In Mental Health Nursing, 38(6), 523-525. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2017.1322430
Love, J. (2016). Why Competition is Necessary for the Leaders of Tomorrow. Leaderonomics.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020, from https://leaderonomics.com/personal/necessity-competition-leadership.
McGuinness, D. (2020). Why Competition Is Good for Kids (and How to Keep It That Way). Parents. Retrieved 1 April 2020, from https://www.parents.com/kids/development/social/why-competition-is-good-for-kids-and-how-to-keep-it-that-way/
