In this video I would like to discuss a very strong and deep rooted belief system that we have, and that is “Life is a Competition”.
Lot of people say there is healthy competition, it is required so that we can move ahead in life. And most of us just treat life as a competition.
Now from where did we pick up this belief system. If we rewind and go back to when we were small, It started right from then. The little school competitions, the fancy dress competitions, concerts that we used to have, Game competitions in schools etc.
When we started winning those competitions we were termed as achievers. We were always looked upon as something better than the others that participated.
When we won a competition we had a different kind of treatment. Our friends considered us better then themselves. So we always wanted to win.
Then in group games or sports when an entire team won say in football, cricket, basketball, There too we were considered superior as compared to the other teams.
So we got this happiness out of this achievement. We were termed as achievers.
Even at home our parents used to tell us that we need to be better than the neighbours kids. We need to get better marks at schools so that people think that we are clever.
So due to all this kind or feedback, and the environment that we were in we have come to believe and live with this belief that Life is a Competition. We need to compete and need to win to be happy.
Nowadays when there is a job vacancy put out, and the requirement is just 5 people by that company. All the candidates that apply for that job are in competition with one another. They think that the job is the prize and if they are selected they will get some happiness out of that achievement.
It was never meant to be like this. Competitions are very good as activities, but when they become our purpose of life it can be very dangerous. It can lead to a lot of sorrow, disappointment and sadness in our life.
If everything we do in our life, we are competing with others then there is no scope for self fulfillment. We should feel self fulfilled, we should be fulfilled on a daily basis.
But when our happiness is based on being better than others, when we evaluate our achievement based on the achievement of others we will never be happy even if we have made progress in our life.
Because the progress may not be better than the neighbour, better than your friend or better than that person who has that job.
We need to live life by practicing self fulfillment. We should be self fulfilled in whatever we do, with our progress on a daily basis.
This is a journey of life, not a competition. Life is a journey and not an activity.. Competition is an activity. We need to progress on a daily basis by being happy with our progress.
If we are not happy with our progress, that means our happiness lies somewhere in the future. It depends on some parameter of defeating somebody to feel better to feel that you are an achiever.
And this is just a belief system that has concreted itself within us. We need to break free from these false belief systems that give us short term happiness.
We need to work on long term happiness by being happy on a daily basis,doing things we love, meeting people with the right energy and detaching from all the false belief systems we have.
We can achieve this by practicing self awareness so that we feel self fulfilled on a daily basis. We are calm and peaceful, by practicing self awareness you will get there.
You will help your mind to detach from all these false belief systems, false attachments etc.
Life is a journey and we need to make the best of it. We need to be aware of what we really like, what really gives us happiness. We should be in touch with our true self and not be happy when a few things work out for us.
We should be approaching every event in our life, we should be approaching the journey of life by being happy from within.
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