REQUEST: Do not skim through. This article distills knowledge from lot of resources (and personal experiences) and understanding this concept may make lot of things in your and your loved ones life simpler. So get your coffee or coke or take a deep puff of pot (if you are into that), relax and enjoy!
There is an epidemic of ‘competition’ around the world. We compete in studies, we compete to get INTO a job and AT a job once we do get in. We compete to attract life partners and we compete to get kids in to the best schools.
Then we continue the tradition of competition by inculcating that mindset onto our new generation.
They say change is the only constant in life. If that were true, we have to accept that competition is the next constant in modern life.
When we do succeed in studies to get into college and then onto a decent job, the mindset of 'rat-race competition' and 'pressure' continues to haunt us rest of our lives, that is, until we make a conscious choice to recognize that we have locked ourselves up in a 'stress filled cycle' that has no utility.
Competition is an evolutionary need to keep the race from perishing. We are not talking about existential competition that is needed, we are talking about artificial, brainwashed competition.
If we were taught the truth behind competition
then the outcome would be different and we may possibly save ourselves and others from unnecessary ailments such as high blood pressure or brain strokes or heart-attacks.
Understanding the competition from this Truth about Competition framework helps us not only as students but as adults as well. It certainly changed my perspective of how I view the competition in my life.
Whenever we are in a stressful competition, we should remind us of what the TRUE competition consists of. Let’s start out with the total pool in the competition of: #100%.
This can be further broken down into:
The Lucky 50%
50% are just trying out luck: In any competition (except for high endurance activities), there are individuals who are just trying out their luck. These are the folks that will blow away with the first wind on to try something else.
I call them lucky 50% because, if they get in - it is their luck.
Even if they don't get what they want, by just being part of the race they are raising the 'numbers' and this keeps the 'faint' at heart individuals at bay. In a way, this 50% is not only doing a favor to themselves by 'trying their luck out', they are also doing a favor for the more serious folks by keeping the faint hearted out of the race.
You know this bunch as people who enroll but don’t show up at the event, those who have ‘last minute’ things to do right before something important, those who have a laundry list of excuses and are jumping from one thing to other.
In the crypto world, these are the ones that are classic FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) maniacs.
If you are a serious contender, you can safely ignore this bunch.
This reduces our competition to
50%
The Multi-Poolers 25%
25% of the competition is trying out multiple things at the same time: These are the over-achievers that sometimes achieve way too many things that are not possible for mere mortals but more often than not they achieve nothing except high blood pressure.
They are the ones trying to balance their feet on multiple boats and try to achieve the impossible.
There will be few of them that are very very smart, and by the mere smartness of their wits achieve great things. However, these over-achieving-smarty pants are rare and we do not have to be concerned about this 25% pool in general.
Now we got the competition to
25%
The Serious part-timers 15%
15% are serious but part-time: That is - they are vested in the limited time they have available. These can be real competition but fall short with those that are in 100%. These are the folks that are studying and have to work at the same time or working and taking care of family, etc. Whether these folks succeed in one competition or other in particular or not, they generally tend to achieve a lot in their lives.
Because they know, there are more ways to REACH the destination that is so firmly set in their mind. And many times, sky is the limit for this kind.
This brings our competition pool to
10%
Have Everything but discipline group 5%
Then there are those who are serious about pursuing the goal and have all the resources at their disposal except discipline and commitment: For the onlookers, this groups seems to be busting their balls. If you pay close attention, they are staring at the book or computer or whatever they are 'supposed' to be doing, but are lost in their thoughts.
If they are working, they are working all the time because most of the times they are working they are not working and hence they end up working all the time.
Same thing goes with anything this group takes on. They are sometimes blessed with time, resources, brains and sometimes with all, but lack the discipline to keep their mind from wandering.
They are competition to themselves, not to the general pool. They are their own enemies and we will do us a favor by ignoring this bunch to their own vices.
So we started with # 100% and got to ## 5% even before we entered into the competition.
Still with me?
Because this is where things get interesting.
The True competition 5%
This 5% is real fierce - they will give their all in. No matter which part of this 5% grid we fall on – we should be proud for being a rare breed.
Whenever we get into any competition, whether it is academics or life, we should not stress out about 100% because when we do – we dissipate our energy in trying to fight all 100%. We lose focus.
When we understand that the core competition is 5%, we re-focus.
Truth about Competition applied to Steemit
Let's apply what we learned to Steemit platform. Look at the statistics shared by @arcange in one of the articles. Make a note of orange section. Like we said earlier, MORE than 50% of users are inactive. As pointed out by the author, these statistics are dynamic and may change on daily basis, however, it is apt to serve as an example for our study purposes to illustrate the theory of 'Truth Behnd Real Competition'.
The similar pattern we talked about earlier exists on Steemit (and anywhere else in life). Once we understand that our true competition is not 100% but really the 5% then our strategy changes.
To compete with this 5% is really tough but at the same time amazingly exhilarating. This competition with the top 5% forces us to change our strategies from going AFTER outside competition to going INNER to search for what makes us special:
- Instead of competing for what's exciting?, we will go after what excites us!
- Instead of begging people to follow, we will provide value and let people choose to follow
- Instead of looking for approval, we will just keep on contributing for the fun of it
When that shift happens, we will become confidants of this platform.
The more Steemit confidants we create early in its infancy (yes, I believe Steemit is at its infancy), the more solid foundation of Steemit becomes and we will build a culture of embracing difference of opinions and views and joining hands in progress of Steemit and Steemians.
The other day, my wife asked me as to why I keep writing even though it doesn’t translate to $$s or followers when some other folks just copy/paste stuff on here and have staked 1000s of followers and $$$s. That question is what really prompted me to share this article with my fellow Steemians and the answer to her question (and many Steemians with same question) is in this article. If you did not find it at the first go, read again.
Thank you for your time and constructive feedback that I can incorporate into my future work!
Opinion. Not an advice.
Picture source: pixabay.com