Competitions; choose wisely

 What do you think about the concept of
“competition”? I mean when the word competition comes to your mind,
does it click as a negative word or a positive one? Truthfully, for me, I feel
indifferent about it, it simply comes to my mind as another word in the English
dictionary. I only thought deeply about it recently. Competition sounds more like
a positive trait to me than a negative one. The society we enjoy today is as a
result of people’s desire for more. Some people got tired of black and white
television and felt they needed a better chunk of the motion picture market, that
competitive desire led to several researches that brought about a better
picture quality to our screens. The reward for their innovation is some years
of IP protection over their innovation giving them full exclusive right to
exploit the economic reward of their thoughtfulness for a certain number of
years.

A society thrives on healthy competition. Mark
the word “healthy”, a healthy competition entails that everyone wants to outdo
the other in terms of better discoveries, better solutions to societal
problems, better output and in overall a better and more efficient society is
formed. Healthy competition brings out the best in people and when hard work is
rewarded, people are motivated to do more. From the foregoing, one can easily
conclude that competition in the general sense is good for our society. But
there is a type of competition that achieves nothing, they are the ones I term “unhealthy
competitions”. For instance, competing with your friend, contemporaries for the
latest gadget, car, who acquired the best assets e.t.c is unhealthy because
such competition will not add anything to the society, rather it puts people in
a subtle pressure to live up to standards they may not be able to afford. It
leads to undue comparison  which may affect weak minded people.

I still maintain that you should choose your
competition, ask yourself, what is the overall benefits of this competition?
Will it lead to the common good, or is it just another avenue to involve in needless
frivolities? The answer to this question will help you know the type of competition
you are engaging in.

It’s another new week, the first Monday in the
month of December 2020, don’t forget to choose your competitions wisely. Have a
prosperous week.