The reason I say don’t Compete set goals is because there are some things wrong with competition, at least in a work environment. It only really works when you take away a strong human element; usually compassion and empathy. I had an experience that changed my view on competing with others early in my selling career.
Something I used to do often and was never embarrassed about was to get advice from the top salespeople in my department. What I noticed was my feelings often changed once I got to know each individual. I still wanted to be a top producer myself, but I no longer viewed them as competition. When you compete you want to do well and a part of you hopes that the other person you hope to beat doesn’t do as well.
Don’t compete against someone’s success Compete for your own
If you knew someone was working as hard as they did to support a sick family member, to pay off a massive debt, or to send their kids to college. How could you root against them? Once you find those things out, if you are like most people there will be an instant shift, you will start cheering for this person instead of going against them anytime you see them do well.
Competition is great because it’s a reminder that there is no ceiling if you work hard enough.
It’s good to look at how hard others are working because it reminds you that when you think you’ve reached your limit, you haven’t. You think you’ve done a good job by working a 10-hour day, only to see that someone worked 14 hours. That pushes you.
Healthy competition makes you better, unhealthy competition makes you jealous. Be very mindful of your thoughts. The line between the two is almost unrecognizable.
Ask yourself, do you want to better yourself or do you want to be better than someone else?
I’ve often been in sales environments where the company was having its best month ever; which means everyone from the top salesperson down to the bottom of the salesforce had their best month ever. No matter how great their months were relative to what they had accomplished before, there was always jealously and envy aimed at the top salesperson because of how much more money he or she was making compared to them.
Don’t compete set goals
The most important thing you have to do in your work or personal environment is define what success means to you. Once you do that, you can create a barrier around what makes you happy, which is hitting your goal. When you look over at the person next to you who was more successful or had the better month, you’ll think “so, what?”. Their goal wasn’t my goal.
A goal gives you a point of satisfaction
The downfall of many is that they don’t set a goal for themselves, so there is never any point of satisfaction. The beautiful thing about setting a goal is even if you fall short, you might be disappointed, but the feeling will differ from jealously felt for others. You will be motivated to improve yourself. To try again.