Nope, Life Is NOT A Competition!

Nope, Life Is NOT A Competition!

Like all these flowers that bloom on their own and NOT bothered as to how the other flowers are blooming, there is that growing misconception that given the challenges in life, life is a competition BUT Nope, Life Is NOT A Competition at all.  And although it seems that way, it is unfortunate that it seems, sometimes jealousy can get the best of us.  So, HOW often do you find yourself getting jealous of other people?  And does jealousy affect the way you perceive others OR the way you perceive yourself???

Many times in the past, I admit that I had that recurring tendency to compare, compete and be jealous of others, thinking that I DIDN'T measure up].  BUT alas, over time, I did learn HOW to navigate these feelings of jealousy by understanding the difference between NEGATIVE competition and POSITIVE competition.  So, HOW did I learn that life is NOT a competition

NOT to blame my parents or even my mentors in school BUT as a young adult, I was under the constant impression that life is a competition, WHICH was a big issue for me and seemed to make sense, especially as someone involved in real-life competitions.  So, the past decades or so, I've done quite a bit of personal growth even as I erroneously believed then that I was already past that stage of being jealous of others

NOT until I went through numerous challenging situations, and those were 'friendly reminders' to me as to HOW jealous and competitive I can still be [during those years]. With intense soul searching, I realized that much of the conflict and judgment that shows up has got to do more with me being overly competitive with them [WHEN in truth, I DIDN'T realize then that there was NO competition].  By then, I realized I had to navigate jealousy itself.  And while it was easy to tell someone that life is NOT a competition, it was hard to eliminate jealousy within ourselves 

Our takeaway:  As we live in a very competitive world, early in life we learn to compete and as we get into the 'real world', we often continue to compete with family members, friends, coworkers and the rest, especially in our professional lives.  WHAT we missed out are the NEGATIVE effects of competition which can even result in lower self-esteem, sometimes even impacting relationships.  And before things turn from bad to worse, let us agree that LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION!!!