Avoidance of competition may well deny us the great benefits of stretching and extending ourselves to achieve to our own outer limits – “What can I do? What am I truly capable of?” This is one of the reasons I have questioned the response of society to competition and any form of benchmarking. We have become fearful of finishing second.
There is competition in life, in many different forms, and providing ‘escape clauses’ so early in life sends out a message that competition is wrong and harmful. Competition has associated risk; maybe you won’t do as well as you thought, perhaps you won’t achieve all that you have imagined – but maybe you will find you discover your very best.
