The Competitive Life

Life can be so competitive sometimes.  What's with that?

We compete in business, we compete in our relationships, we compete as mothers, we compete as neighbours.  Competition is everywhere!  And the stress of that is having a not so nice effect on our bodies, minds and spirits.


Do you sometimes feel like you are running a race and you have no idea who you are racing against or where you are running to?  There's just a sense of needing to do something MORE, something BETTER than the next guy.


In business this is of course what society has taught us.  "It's a dog eat dog world out there" I found myself saying to a friend yesterday.  Do I believe this?  Do you believe this?  And is this belief contributing to yours (and my) occasional need to succeed and the misery we experience in the process?  You bet!


I've never been an overly competitive person.  In highschool I chose cheerleading over other sports, I have never fought another girl for a boy, I don't feel a need to have the latest gadgets, vehicles or material items just because someone else has them and I enjoy losing just as much as winning.

So when this feeling of needing to compete comes about, I know that it is not a natural part of who I am.  I know this first of all because it doesn't feel good for me to think about having to compete.

I do work diligently at shifting this belief and I'll tell you why.

What happens when I get stuck in the competitive thinking brain is that nothing happens in my business, no new ideas, no new plans, no new clients.  It also affects my personal life and how I deal with my family and friends.  When I shift my thinking as this belief comes in is that I begin to feel more energized inside, the ideas begin to flow, I am more accepting of my personal limitations and boundaries, I am more focused on who I am and what I want to offer my clients, my family and the world.

So for me it is extremely important to not get caught up in the competitive forces that are forever at work.

How do I shift the belief?  For one thing I know for certain that every being on this planet has gifts to share with the world, in their own unique way.  Each of us has come into this life with an agenda and a goal that we will work to bring to fruition during this lifetime.  What I have found for myself is that competition slows down my process of growth because it keeps me in a state of fear.  As much as fear can be a motivator it can also act as a resistor to what you desire to manifest.  So I remind myself of this.

Then I focus only on me and my business.  I don't get caught up in how many other people are working in my field.  I don't make it my business to know who is doing what and when.  I don't work to try and "one up" someone.

Maybe this is all sounds a little naive to the business minded people out there, I just don't think that owning a business means you have to become ruthless and competitive towards the other people working in your industry.

I run my business the same way I live my life.  From my heart.  If something feels good, I will pursue it.  If I have an idea I feel would be fun to incorporate and useful to my clientele, I bring it to life.


For me, true success isn't going to come from the number of clients I have in my book or the bottom line at the end of the day.  It's going to come from the knowledge that everything I have done, I have done because I believed in it and it brought me joy.