Signs Someone Is Competing with You

In a workplace, most recognition and incentives are awarded only to the high performers. It has bad effects and can result in lower self-esteem because they are not being recognized. Source: ideas.baudville.com

1. Both of you might get consumed with bitterness.
2. The pressure might disturb your output.

We can see that there are a lot of bad effects on having competition. But, some things can help you in participating in a competition, especially if it is a healthy competition.

Here are 5 pros of having a healthy competition:

1. It is exciting.
2. It motivates you to perform more.
3. You become more focused on your goal.
4. It can help you to be more mature.
5. It can develop your strategy skills in solving different kinds of problems.

Being competitive is normal, and it’s normal to feel competitive towards anyone whether, it is a friend, family member, colleague, classmate, or even with our partners. Being in a toxic competition has a lot of bad effects than having healthy competition. While being in a healthy competition has a lot of benefits, we just need to have the right mindset for us to avoid feeling jealous, distrust and being entitled. Being in a healthy competition helps you to be more creative in life and can also strengthen bonds or ties between the individuals. Joining a group of individuals can also develop leadership and could harness your skills as being a good team player.

The competition also helps us to correct the things that occur in our attitudes and mindset because in a competition, there will always be positive and negative feedback and those feedbacks can also help us to be a better people.

One of the reasons why people are also competitive is because that is one way of how they can measure themselves to see how far they can go. For some people, it could be just their desire to surpass a certain person that might be a sign that a person has a superiority complex (a belief that your accomplishments and abilities are somehow dramatically better than other people). Although in real-life competitions, there will always be a winner, and there will always be one in the team that will always show his enthusiasm and exerts most of his time and effort to win the competition because that individual wants to win the prize and in psychology that is called an extrinsic incentive. This simply means that the person’s motivation to take on a certain action was preferably getting more into external gains more than getting into internal gains. (Example: You would do or be competitive in something because you know that you will gain a reward for it.)

According to studies, It has been proven that competitiveness’ psychological trait was not related to survival, even though human’s tendency to compete could be a tendency of manifesting a natural outgrowth of the biological competition. However, promoting healthy competition can help people improve their self-esteem and increase the level of their enjoyment in life because getting rewarded is fulfilling.

So when is competitiveness a problem?

Competitiveness can be a problem if a certain person becomes hypercompetitive as research defines as “a neurotic need to win at all cost” uncontrolled competitive competition could hurt an individual themselves due to overtraining for them to succeed that they have neglected their needs in terms of physical, mental and spiritual. There are also parts that they have forgotten that their relationship with the other person is also important.

People who are also hypercompetitive also tend to compare themselves to other people or their peers, and that can develop a feeling of inadequacy. Competitive people also have someone to lose against. The constant quest to be the best may lead to perfectionism, stress, and other issues.

Guidelines to maintain Healthy Competitions:

According to studies, Humans believe that competition gets an acceptable reputation at times. But, competition is absolutely necessary for entrepreneurial organizations. To encourage healthy competition with your colleagues in your organization, you can practice these strategies and make sure that everyone will have a healthy competition: 

1. Promote healthy conflicts.

This teaches us to listen and be open which is a key to a successful resolution, it opens our eyes to new ideas that will allow us to shape our perspective more, and this practices us to enhance the communication skills that could help us lead to solutions to our conflicts.

2. Reward those who perform right.

Our minds are wired to repeat what has been done when we are rewarded for that certain behavior. Not just humans but also animals when we are rewarded for doing something, we tend to repeat it over and over again.

3. Make sure, to be honest with your work.

By creating an atmosphere of honesty for yourself when working makes you have an environment that has that sense of self-accountability and responsibility.

4. Maintain your integrity.

Live your everyday life in line with your innermost values. You don’t have to adjust your values to anyone. Suppose you’re staying in a workplace that has different values than yours then, don’t let them sway yours. If you’re an honest person and someone who keeps their word. You’re more likely to be appreciated and be considered in a leadership position. Keep that in mind.

5. Find opportunities to have fun.

Find ways to have fun during a competition. Do not just focus on the rivalry of competitions but focus more on the positive side by gaining new friendships, relationships, interactions, and gaining new lessons in life.

Always keep in mind that competitiveness is neither good nor bad. You just have to enjoy every single moment of it and always treasure those people who will stay beside you even if you win or lose. We must also have to carve in our mind that we can win a competition without making other people feel bad about themselves. Winning is always not always about the victory, but it is rising every time you fall without cheating and compromising other people.

Winning is always not always about the victory but it is rising every time you fall without cheating and compromising other people.