As humans, the desire to always come out on top is something that's innate. When channeled properly it's this desire that drives us towards success, propelling us to push beyond our perceived limitations and exceeding even our expectations.

However, competition needs to be carefully and deliberately checked. If not it can leave us constantly feeling unfulfilled and inadequate, and if we are not careful imposter syndrome might set in.

The difference between healthy and unhealthy competition boils down to our attitude; is it friendly or threatening, what's the motive?

Healthy competition is an epitome of team spirit and shows one is a contributing member of a tribe/team. .

The competitive spirit in a healthy competition stems from a growth mindset rather than trying to prove something to anyone.

Someone who partakes in healthy competition wants to win but also derives pleasure in seeing the other person succeed, and would help teammates achieve their goals.

In a football team, members of same team may engage in healthy competition, driving each other to push harder in their drills and being a source of motivation for one another during training sessions.

Racing to see who can sprint faster, and do more push-ups during a training session helps in building skills that will carry over to game day as long as it's all in good fun.

The goal here is not to prove who's stronger, the competition is towards a holistic goal, because the betterment of one automatically reflects on the team not just the player

Competition becomes unhealthy when it blinds us to the improvements that we are making as individuals. This happens when we focus on the other person, rather than ourselves.

Instead of appreciating the fact that we are a little bit stronger, faster or fitter, we beat ourselves up because we are not as strong, fast or fit as our competition.

If we focus on ourselves more than we focus on our competition we'd definitely notice how much progress we've made so far, and will stop beating ourselves up unnecessarily

Focusing on your competition doesn't give you that clarity

Let's learn to celebrate our little wins/achievement.

Our capacities as individuals differ, don't compare your chapter one to someone else's chapter five.

Have you ever engaged in a health or unhealthy competition?

How did you get through?

Please kindly share your experience in the comment section.