Kohn’s claim about the nature of competition is true to the extent that being better than someone will never be enough and it is destructive to base one’s success on another person’s failure. However, competition could potentially serve as a drive to push someone to their fullest potential, Kohn claims that one will never be able to truly be satisfied with being better than someone else, because there will always be someone who is even better. From personal experience, I have realized that when I accomplish an achievement that another person did not, it is easy to feel superior. However, I will then come to realize that there is someone else with an even higher achievement than I have. When it comes to competing, one will never be completely …show more content…
There are people who are not as motivated, they are often referred to as the underachievers. However, once they have someone to compete with, they are more likely to become motivated to improve and excel. This is where competition serves as a healthy motivator. There is a friend who was exhausted of being constantly compared to his overachieving older brother. This caused him to start studying and working harder in order to become just as good as his brother. The situation showed how he did not need to bring down his older brother in order to be just as successful. Competition serves its purpose, when one finds themselves competing with themselves instead of their competitor. When one is competing with themselves, they are allowing themselves to grow and improve to become a better person. They do not have to compete with someone else, nor degrade others success in order to make their achievements seem exceptional. The nature of competition could have a positive or negative impact on the personalities and habits of people. Kohn’s claim is relevant in the sense that competing with someone else will never end and it has the tendency to make people become destructive towards themselves and others. Competition could serve its purpose if it is used in a positive and healthy
Two best friends are torn apart. A man meticulously plots revenge on the person who got the job he was dying for. A nation is full of rage and fear because another country beat them in the race to walk on the moon. Sadly, all of these situations were caused by one thing, competition. In Alfie Kohn’s essay, “Competition Is Destructive”, he describes competition as having a “toxic effect on our relationships”(11). Although competition has many positive effects in this world, when talking specifically about relationships, whether it be between best friends, two strangers, or even entire nations, it fuels negative feelings and attitudes that transform people into monsters.
In Theodore Isaac Rubin’s essay, “Competition and Happiness”, he summits about how in today’s society its always the battle eat or be eaten. Therefore our parents always tried to get us involved at an early age to help with our self-development, well being, and health. Since our culture has made us believe that competition brings out the best of us. Yet, it simultaneously brings out a stressful, isolating, and paranoid ambiance at a very young age. I agree with Rubin’s notion since the use of our time and energy is determined by competition and limits our happiness because it weakens our sense of identity.
In the story “Harrison Bergeron” a live broadcast is interrupted by Harrison Bergeron [George’s son] himself, freeing the people listening of their society and dancing away with a talented ballerina: “And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang! Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the laws of gravity and the laws of motion as well.” (Vonnegut 4). Once the government’s boundaries of full equality were taken away for a quick moment Harrison and a ballerina were able to excel, be free, and cross boundaries of science. Because these people were no longer held from showing their talent they were able to improve their skill after years of no improvement. Without being able to show talents to the people around one there is no competition, but without that competition one can not improve or express joy from what they are doing. For example, in today’s society if computer brands stopped competing to have the best and newest product our technology would not advance at all, nor would the computer engineer’s mind and skill. Competition creates many forms of external motivation and with that taken away
In order to comprehend this article, one must have a concept of self-esteem. Self- esteem is the personal evaluation of one’s worth as a person. Most individuals subject self-esteem as the “feeling that one is ‘good enough.” Also, individuals believe those with high self- esteem tend to believe they are superior to others, which is not necessarily true. Another inaccurate assumption on self- esteem interprets that talents and abilities are influential on self-esteem. Also, self- esteem is not
With competition, people have incentive to improve. Last fall, my father had the idea for the two of us to have a competition and see who could do more sit-ups by the end of the year. This would be part of my offseason baseball training and his normal exercise. We were both doing hundreds of sit-ups a day, and I eventually won. In the end, we were both the winners because this was very good exercise for our body, which probably would not have been done without the competition. At the end of each of my basketball lessons, my coach and I would play a short game of one versus one. At first, he would always win. I grew tired of always losing to
Competition is a good thing. Success is determined by one’s desire to become better, and if that desire is taken away then so is the motivation to improve. Imposing “handicaps” on people to level out the playing field is in no way healthy or ethical. According to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the freedom of thought (Art. 18). However, George Bergeron was not free to think what he wanted to due to his great intelligence. This is why the theme of the story should be kept in mind; equality is possible up to a certain point, at which it just becomes an absurd contradiction.
Over the past few decades, American society has become more and more obsessed on performance outcomes and winning; being declared the best has become most important (Crain, 2004). Winning is often viewed as an all or nothing virtue, whereby greatness is a descriptive term reserved only for those whose names appear at the top of the list (Hanchon, 2011). This evolving mindset communicates to our youth that despite his or her efforts, only the final results matter. For many individuals the ideas of achievement, excellence, and self-worth have become highly dependent upon the perceived outcomes of the competitions or events in which they engage (Hanchon, 2011). Outperforming one’s competitors serves as the defining characteristic of success or excellence, which in turn, appears to serve as a key determinant in the individual’s self-assessment of life satisfaction (Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998).
Take, for instance, the competition between two juggernauts of the phone industry. Apple and Samsung, both proven giants of their field, have been incessantly competing for many years, which has caused persistence from both sides, driving them to rise above the other, sparking a certain ambition and, in turn, pushing their technology above what was formerly deemed possible. For example, directly after Apple’s introduction of their fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S, Samsung released a similar product, this one paired with an iris scanner to place it a cut above of its competitor. As numerous other examples of this oscillation of advancement are apparent, the motivation attributed to adversity also becomes more apparent. This motivation and subsequent achievement can theoretically be applied to any situation, driving parties involved to simply outdo the other(s), naturally producing a better product compared to one made without the presence of the driving force of adversity in competition. When forced to play against others, standards and talent levels are raised to another level, as it is the desire to be preeminent that pushes forward, a motivation apparent in the shattering of records and the expanding of
Through the work of psychology, we have learned how the human mind thinks. nAnd psychologist have found out why there is comparison over all. In the article, “ The Psychology of Competition” , the author states “ We propose a new model that distinguishes between individual and situational factors that increase social comparison and thus lead to a range of competitive attitudes and behavior. “
Competition between peers makes people strive to try and be better than their opponents, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the competitors and their responses to the competition. Sometimes people see competition and face it head on like Gene when he is trying to become the “head of the class” (Knowles 24). It gets people to strive to be the best that they can be and whether they are successful or not they are better off than before. Even though Phineas was maimed it looked like he was going to end up getting a better educat...
There is a misconception that competition is bad, if a child can experience the thrill of winning and the disappointment of losing, they will be well equipped for the reality of life. Competition provides stimulation to achieve a goal; to have determination, to overcome challenges, to understand that hard work and commitment leads to a greater chance of success. Life is full of situations where there are winners and losers; getting a job; a sports game; not getting into a desired college. People need to learn how to cope with disappointment and then to look forward to the next opportunity to try again. Competition also teaches us to dig deep and find abilities we never knew we had. The pressure to win or succeed can often inspire more imaginative thinking and inspire us to develop additional
Some believe that competitiveness challenges, motivates and brings out the best in students and the fiercer the competition, the better for learning. When competitiveness puts students against each other, creates suspicion, and divides the students into private, jealous, envious, suspicious and mistrustful individuals thats when it fails. In some classes and institutions it is encouraged to happen. When it does happen research says that the outcome is likely to decrease performances, grades and learning outcomes for many students. I do not work well with competition. I get stressed out and in the end I have worse results than if the learning environment was not competitive. I see how it makes people angry, jealous, private and turns them against each other. The learning environment is better for students when can discuss and work together instead of being against each other. I believe their are other ways to motivate students without turning them against each other. I personally like to ask classmates questions and if their is competitiveness, who is to know if they are giving you the wrong answer just so they
To compete, as defined by the New Century Dictionary, is “To contend with another for some prize or advantage” (“compete”[Volume 1][Page 294]). The question of what competition is has been settled for centuries, but the debate over what the point of competition is continues to this day. Thoughts on this topic usually fall into one of two categories. There are those who would agree with Henry Russell Sanders’s famous statement that, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” and there are those who would agree with Vince Lombardi, who stated, “Winning isn’t everything, but the desire to win is.” The attitude Vince Lombardi epitomizes is by far the healthier mindset to take regarding competition.
middle of paper ... ... Thus, competition leads people to envy the winners, to dismiss losers and to be suspicious of just about everyone. Competition makes it difficult to regard others as potential friends or collaborators; even if one is not a rival today, one could be tomorrow. The first step to achieving happiness and health is recognizing the value of competition built on myths.
A metaphor that can help best describe the understanding of competition is; competition is to self-esteem as sugar is to teeth. Self-doubt is the biggest downfall in today’s society because most people lose in most competitive encounters, and it shows why they do. But not even winning doesn't build character; it just builds fame for a hot second. Studies have shown that feelings of self-worth became dependent on external sources of evaluation as a result of competition: Your value is defined by what you've done. Worse you're a good person in proportion to the number of people you've beaten.