Competition: A little less wouldn’t be all that bad

It’s all around and probably has been a part of your life for as long as you can remember. Take a step back and appreciate what you’re done to date. It’s probably pretty impressive on some level. If not, well you there’s no way but up!

I can remember competition being a part of my life from my younger years. In elementary school there was competition for sports, big time. There was also competition for the number of books that we read. (I remember flying through some Goosebumps books)

In junior high and highschool it was sports again, just more intense. It was grades (on tests, in classes, on quizzes, on homework, on papers). It was also number of lines that I got in the 9th grade play “Oklahoma” (I got 2).

In college it was once again grades and of course tennis performance.

Post college, job success is the most competitive aspect of my life, along with trying to impress the lady folk.

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Could I imagine a world without competition? Sounds pretty boring.

Could I imagine a world with slightly less competition? Absolutely.

I think competition pushes us to great things, probably impossible without it. I think competition can make people act outside of their norm. Lie, cheat, steal.

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I remember back in 3rd grade, I wanted to get the same grade as a buddy of mine on a spelling test. The word was “friend.” I was pretty damn confident that the “i” came before the “e,” but I wasn’t 100% sure and I definitely didn’t want to get this word wrong and not get that perfect score on the test. I peaked over at a classmate’s paper, bingo, “friend.” I felt terrible after. Told my parents probably, because I told them any and everything.

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Moral of the story, the competition was pretty intense and I needed to cheat to win. Obviously this is a minor transgression, but as you can deduce the competition forced me to have lesser than expected moral standards.

Competition is can’t live without it, don’t want to live without it, but want to live with a bit less of it. End o’ story.

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This came up as one of the first Google Images for “Competition.” That’s all…

Over and out,

Brad

13 October 2011 ·