Competition And the life phenomenon

            Today we are living in a world where everything is taken as a competition. To compete with someone or to compare yourself with someone else is a total waste of time. We often hear people saying that life is a competition, but have you ever thought that with whom you are competing? When a child returns home after attending his exams, his parents' first question is, "How was your exam". If the child says that his papers did not go well then his parents' second question is, "How did the other children do in the exam?" And if the child says that the other children didn't do well in the exam either then the parents get some relaxation. It's because their focus is not on their child's success but on the failure of the others. Why it is fine if the other children are going to remain in the same class along with their child!  If it is my journey then surely the rules should be mine, the efforts should be mine, the choices should be mine, the value-system should be mine, and so on.

             Am I going to share my success with others? No, no, no, if I am not going to share my success then why should I think of sharing the hardship or the struggle with others? The major reason that we think likewise is that we never think individually rather we think collectively. We think if he has done this to get success we will do the same to get success, and if we see that one has not put his full energy then we don't put ours either. For example; in a school race competition the first rule which is told to the children is not that, that see if the other children are ahead then run faster or if they are backward then run slower no, rather it is to see your target don't think of the other runners and run to your fullest. Why don't we imply the same rule to our lives that we are supposed to focus just and just on our destiny? In fact, to be practical we are not in a race or a competition.

             We are free to make choices! If this thought was not put in our minds from the basic that life is a competition so, believe me, we would have never thought of it. I want to get good marks, brilliant thoughts, I want to become famous, nice thought, I want to reach the peak of success flawless thought, I want to reach this position or I want to progress, not a bad thing to do and go on. No doubt, you can achieve all of these things when put all of your energy into competing with yourself, not with others. Try to be better than you are right now not try to be better than others. Our motive just shouldn’t be a success, rather it should be excellence, and once we get victory over excellence then success comes itself. Like, one of the best writers of all time (Professor Shiv Khera) quotes in his book, (You Can Win), “Winners don’t do different things they do the things differently. We should also do the same things but in a different way. 

 

By Riaz Quraish

The writer is a teacher at BELC and a student of Economics at UoT

Turbat Kech Balochistan