Greetings!
One thing that has been part of humanity is competition. Competition is something we cannot but witness in our lifetime. It doesn't even matter if we are competing with others. One thing that's very sure is that, if you think you are not competing with others, others are competing with you. That's the truth of the matter.
In my lifetime, I have been on both sides of what competition is. At one time, I was on the healthy side of competition and at some other times, I found myself on the other side of unhealthy competition. But one thing that has always been keeping me going is that I used to make sure I didn't engage in unhealthy competition with others. In fact, I used to allow any kind of competition I'm having with others to make and not to mar me.
Though, at the start of my life or let me say while I was growing up, I was not too good in keeping a healthy competition with others as I used to be envious of others achievement most especially when it comes to academic performances back then. I could remember a friend of mine that used to come first in our class. This guy, Smart by name, was really smart indeed as he used to claim all our class awards at the end of the session.
So, seeing him claiming the award didn't go down well with me. At some point, I stopped talking to him and saw him as a cheat in our class. Also, I saw him as a threat to my growth, but when I realized that there's nothing I could do to change him and his performances, I surrendered and I became his friend.
It's when I became his friend that I got to know that he's a good person and that all I have been doing all this while is not as necessary as I thought. I got to know that I have just been wasting my time by competing with him in an unhealthy manner and that this has been affecting me and my growth.
So, since I have realized that this unhealthy relationship has been limiting me and my growth, I decided to learn from him and all I didn't know in the past was made known to me through my relationship with him and this time around, all that I was doing was bringing growth to me. Aside from that, I also realized that I have changed from me having this kind of a toxic relationship towards him and every other person to working on my growth and development. Though we are still competing with each other, this time around, it's a kind of competition that brings about growth and development to each and everyone of us.
Then, we read together, set targets for ourselves and formed the best clique of all time in the school. Then, people saw us as the mover and shaker of our school, they saw us as the best in the school back then, but all these didn't come on a platter of gold as we worked for it with all our mind and heart. But thanks to the help of healthy rivalry that characterized our latter days at school which prompted us to set goals and targets for ourselves.
So, the healthy competition really helped me a lot. It helps to make me grow without hating anyone. So, healthy competition is a path to uncommon growth and development. Though it might not be easy, it is a matter of necessity to embrace it and ditch it for unhealthy competition.
This is my entry to the week 171, Edition 01 of the weekly Featured contest in the Hive Learners community.
Thanks for reading.
Picture sourced from metaAi