LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION

Life is not a competition. Unfortunately many of us don’t realize this until we are much older; and some, I imagine, never do. I started to really mull over this on the bus when it hit me the other day. It really hit me. Well, the steel rod sticking out of the makeshift passenger’s seat did anyway LoL (^^,). I have lost count of how many doorframes or “seats” have pockmarked my legs as I got onto a bus that took off before I sat down. They seem to have total lack of consideration for their commuters, and when you voice your complaints, they bark at you, regardless of your threats to never get on their bus again. They know you will. You’ll have no choice at some point. But why do they do this? Because they are in competition; which is no excuse for rough or rude behavior of course, but it is what it is. A healthy type of competition for these guys would be aimed at offering better service & customer care than that of their competitors. Customers would no doubt appreciate this and patronize their business more for it. But anyway, I digress, and perhaps only in my head is where life is that cut and dry (^^,). Although a competitive spirit is good for some things; it becomes a problem when life is lived like one. When life is lived this way, it becomes about other people and not ourselves. Not everyone in your life is or should be your competition. We become competitive from the time we are old enough to look outside ourselves and compare ourselves to another. We want what they have and we at times simply want it because they have it. Some compulsive competitors will even go so far as to want to “win” at EVERYTHING; they will even want to win at NOT WINNING! =D Most of them grew up competing with a sibling, a best friend, a colleague, and subconsciously carry this spirit into their marriages and spend all their lives trying to keep up with the Joneses who are busy living their own lives! Zoning into my self is probably one of the biggest favors that I ever did for myself. We each have our own inner opponents to defeat. I know I do. Everyone has a different destination and different E.T.A but we want to get to ours (or theirs (^^,)) before they or anyone else does, which is ridiculous really. Life is like a road on which DIFFERENT travelers are on their way to DIFFERENT DESTINATIONS, some shorter, others longer and so on. Some left earlier, others left late, and others have almost arrived. Our lives are made rich and complete by association and not duplication. Joy Chen put it this way,” Other people are not our standard. Your journey is different from mine, and our journeys are different from that of any other person.” Let’s face it, we’ll never be the best at everything or have the best of everything so we might as well embrace this reality otherwise suffering from affluenza is inevitable. Affluenza is that bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from dogged efforts to keep up with the Joneses =D He who dies with the most toys is none the less still dead-Just sayin’. (^^,).