Competition and The Illusion of Scarcity (Divinity Within Series)

We live in a world where competitiveness is glorified. We’re encouraged to judge our abilities based on someone else’s merit. Subconsciously, this has been pushed on us since childhood. We competed in field days, sports tournaments, and playground races. When you’re in elementary, it seems fun and light hearted, but as we get older, that competition amplifies into other more personal aspects of our life. It goes from sports, academics and pours into our jobs, relationships with our friends, significant others and our own beauty standards.

Come to think of it, I spent my entire childhood competing with people, because I bought into the illusion of scarcity - that there was no room for all of us to be at the top. A lot of competitive people also suffer with internal conflict with who they are. They’re usually secretly miserable with some aspect of themselves, so they believe competition is the only way to compensate for that quality. They need the approval of many, those 5 seconds of fame, to validate their existence.

This competition has led people to be seen as a success story, rather than a valuable person who just so happens to be successful. They may stray away from their true calling in order to appease the masses, or they just want the attention of millions to heal the wounded child inside.

The only person you need to be competing with, was the person you were yesterday

The gratification you get from surpassing people is only temporary. Stop externalizing all your problems and deal with your own relationship with yourself. Competing with a person only proves who can be the better carbon copy. In this world of the infinite abundance is available to everyone. This illusion of scarcity in the marketplace isn’t empowering you, it’s keeping you in this trap so that you won’t expand into your own personal growth. You won’t ever get to know who you really are until you leave the rat race.

Competing with yourself is the true challenge.

When you're competing with other people, you aren't really listening to what your ego says about YOU. You just feed into the lies that ego sells you - that beating this other person or group of people is the only way to prove your worth. We've all been there though; once we do win the race, we still feel a void inside ourselves. We still hate on ourselves and struggle to find meaning. Overcoming your own fears and limitations you have put on yourself takes a lot of mental power.

Once you release competition, you lose vanity

Everything starts to improve when you become your own competitor. I would even suggest mindful exercising like yoga and pilates, because when you are focused on making yourself stronger for you, rather than building your physique to impress the masses, you naturally begin to love your body.

When people begin to take the focus off of tearing each other down and surpassing everyone, we can all rise to the top of our games. Pride and hoarding all the glory to yourself won't make you feel any better. Remember that you weren't put on this planet just to entertain everyone with your material accomplishments. Once you begin to conquer yourself, abundance comes to you naturally.