Who is my Competition?

IIT, NATA, JEE, GATE, UPSC, SSC, NDA, and whatnot. Each one of us, at some point in our lives, have had this dream of cracking such an exam for a better career path or so.

Just close your eyes for a second and recall all those faces around you who have successfully cracked any of these examinations. And also compare it to the other bunch of people who couldn't make it.

Among the population of 135 crores (in India) and counting, just look around you. You'll notice a rat race to win something or the other. You'll find competition everywhere (even when you're just a sperm). We are always taught to compete with others, to win over the other person, to score the highest, or to grab the 1st position. Some of you might have been able to bag that position, or scored higher than your competition.

And I know it gives us as humans, an immense pleasure whenever we win over someone. But I'm quite sure, apart from that winner lot, there would be a much larger proportion of people who failed.

Have you ever thought about the amount of pressure in which a person is when he gives in his 100% and still fails? What is the emotional and mental state of the person? Do we have any idea, how everything changes in and around that person?

Before moving forward, ask these questions to yourself :

• Why do we compete?

• What are the benefits of winning something over the other person?

• Are we all set-up with the plans, once we win the competition?

• What is our plan if we lose?

• What if things don't end up the same way as you thought they would?

Once you have answered all these questions, some of you will have everything sorted, while most of you will end up in a dilemma. For both lots, the most important question is: WHO IS MY COMPETITION? Well the answer is: YOU ARE Yes. Among all those billions and trillions of people out there, you are your only competition. The only competition that matters in fact. All of us have the "Memories" notification rolling down from Facebook or Instagram every other day. What is the first reaction when you see a post you made about 5 years back? I'm pretty sure it is: OH MY GOD, Why the hell on earth did I write or post something like this. I was so stupid back then. Thank god I'm way evolved now. It's the human tendency to compare ourselves with others, but it gives us an incomparable feeling of comfort, and accomplishment when we find out how much we've evolved over ourselves in a period of time. It includes your Physique, Education, Knowledge, Experience, Strength, Looks(of course), Capabilities, and the list goes on. The moment we realize that WE ourselves is the only true competitor, we won't care about any other competitors then. We must know that each day passed teaches us something and it's us who should take this learning. There might be a possibility that things won't end up the way you wanted them to be, even if you've won over a lot of billion people. The reason behind this is, whenever you'll win over a billion people, you'll have another billion people in front of you to beat, and the competition never ends, thus we're never satisfied. But if with every passing day you outshine yourself, you'll always grow. You'll notice how much you've learned as compared to what you knew some time back. You won't have anyone in front of you apart from yourself. And whenever you'll look back on your journey, you'll see how much you've grown. That's the only growth that matters. No matter the world is at what pace, what your competitors are capable of, if you understand this basic rule of life, no one can stop you, my friend.