The Value of Giving Up Competition

When I first started in the business world, I was taught (and I believed) that the pie was limited. If I didn’t take my slice, then someone else would.

For instance, each year there was a limited pool of money for salary raises. Every dollar one person received meant there was one less for everyone else. Only a certain percentage of people could be rated a one - which was the top rating.

This obviously cultivated a culture of competition.

And while it may have produced increased output, it certainly led to a fair amount of disgruntlement.

Yet this is the way much of the world works.

And it’s intentional. Not just to drive conflict, but to keep us rooted in a mindset of lack and limitation. Even if we get what we want, there’s a part of us that knows deep down it’s at the expense of someone else. The guilt grows - often unconsciously - creating a gnawing sense of fear of losing whatever we’ve gained.

Gain and loss teeter on the world’s precarious balance scale.

But there’s another way of existing in the world - a different mindset - that leads to a completely different experience.

Consider this quote from A Course in Miracles: “What your brother loses you have lost, and what he gains is what is given you.”

When we see others as one with us - a shared purpose to awaken from a dream of hell - then all sense of judgment, competition, and lack melt away. And in their place is a quiet, gentle peace that embraces everyone.

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