Hello friends,
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Friends, it’s finally that time of the year, where we can take a pause from the daily routines, take all those pending leaves, and enjoy the vacations. Normally, this festive time brings so much joy, happiness, and laughter to most of us, but this year hasn’t been that easy. As the world survived the second wave of the pandemic, there are so many families who have lost so much that the void left can never be filled.
So when you celebrate this time, do remember how important these moments are, how lucky you are to be able to celebrate. Don’t take these small things for granted in life, because in the end, these matter a lot!
From the toddlers to the current day, as part of growing up, we have always been taught and also we have experienced one important part of our life, competition. Be it a sports competition, talent competition, competition among the class in academics, or competition for getting the best college and course, competition to land for the best job or the best package, and so on. It never stops. And as Darwin said, Survival of the Fitter! So, this will never really end.
However, what complementary this competition brings in is, anxiety. There is no one, who will always win, or who will always lose. Someone will always be ahead or behind. Maybe if someone is better than you in academics, they may be behind you in talent. Someone maybe has a higher paycheck, but lagging behind in hobbies. And in all this struggle to stop lagging behind, compete and grow better than peers, we always get more and more anxious. And we never know, when this anxiety starts eating within us and compromises our health. But, is there actually a need for competition?
Well, there is no wrong in saying, that the competition among peers does make us and our lives better. Competition among the classmates, make them perform better in exams. The same goes for the job. The salaries get better, and the quality of life also gets better. With the sense of achievement, we also feel better. However, most of the success and glory come at cost of some bruises. They can be either on health or relationships with people or both. Just to give an example, my school classmates still call me nerd, and being a nerd was one of the reasons, many of them never really reached out. It’s a hand-off, and the choice is ours! However, what if the competition among peers is not necessary at all?
Inspiration can come from anyone, be it from an elder or younger. Recently, I came across a story of one of my colleagues. I’m not aware of the complete story, but in very brief, he is less than 25 years old, started working 2-3 years back. One of the parents had a stroke attack, and since then he has been holding and supporting the family, from the daily needs to the education of young siblings.
We all think our lives are so stressful, and we have to work so hard to make a living, and then we look at Instagram, with peers spending a vacation in Dubai, Europe, USA, and we feel more annoyed at times, and talk rudely with the people around us at home in disappointment. And then, there are these inspiring people, who also go through the same, burdened with so many responsibilities at a young age, ready to work till late nights (without thinking of any night out plans), ready to work on weekends (without thinking about the “much needed weekend getaway”), but are so humble and ground to earth.
These people are special, and I would say these are the angels around us, who actually understood the meaning of competition! They do not compete with others, they compete with themselves, yes with themselves They compete to be a better version today than they were yesterday! They fight with their destiny to reach all their goals. A very simple meaning yet a huge difference. If my colleague is reading or listening to this, always remember that a diamond is formed only under high pressure, and you are a diamond in making! You will go far, and your family will always be so proud of you! But, in all this, do take care of your health.
Coming back to the competition, what if rather than competing with peers, we compete with ourselves? What if we work hard to perform better than our previous performance? How about composing a better song than the previous one? How about delivering the next project better than our previous one? How about scoring better marks than our previous results? How about playing a more tough character or a role than the previous one? How about being better at ME than I was yesterday, and setting the targets appropriately? Maybe we have fewer bruises, at least not on relationships.
Also, in competing with ourselves, it is not necessary that we always perform better, we may fail. We may not be able to do better due to many reasons, maybe some external factors too. But the good part in losing here is, we lose from ourselves only, and next time may win from ourselves. So, a loss won’t actually feel like a loss but learning.
For the future generations, it doesn’t matter you are younger or elder, you may inspire any generation with your actions, but also keep in mind that you should be open to learning and getting inspiration from youngers too. It is easy to get inspired by successful people or elder people, but to learn and get inspiration from younger ones, it takes a lot of self-pride to be packed up in a suitcase and set aside!
For competitions, you always need to perform better than one person, you! Be it in your academics, job, or life. You should know your limits, targets and your previous best. This is what you have to compete with and perform better.
Enjoy the vacations, and in case I return next year, Wish you Merry Christmas!
Wanna try this blog’s podcast episide? Here it is:
Cheers!
– Navneet
VARTAMANAH 
What’s your thought about it?