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because life is a competition. Survival of the fittest.
exactly, simple as that. if you ever want to be happy learn to accept it. everyone is a player, even if your just standing there! even people who are redneck white trash compete amongst one another, and i never understood that. turns out i was socially retarted (im an introvert). everyone wants to find a puddle where they can be the shark.
What is wrong with wanting to better your situation in life? Nothing wrong with having a nicer car, bigger home, bigger bank account, more investments. Having things is not the problem. The problem is when individuals let that wealth and the acquistions go to their head thinking that they are better than another because of how life had treated them. Many people of wealth have remembered where they came from and are grounded. They may have a Bentley but don't let that idea that they are better than anyone else enter the mind.
because life is a competition. Survival of the fittest.
Exactly! Life is a game. Play to win!
Of course life is a competition, anything is a competition, a struggle for power. There is only so much happiness to go around.
You should obviously enjoy life, but I enjoy it quite a lot and I am still highly competitive. If I do anything, I want to be the best at it, or at least very good. People who don't have that drive are mediocre and just have low standards. It's not fun to be bad at something, it's fun to be good at it.
Now when it comes to what you're talking about, it's not a competition to do mediocre things like get married and pump out some babies. Anyone can do that. It's a competition to land a hot girl, or a great job, or whatever else, but there is no sense of competition in what is easy to accomplish. I don't care, for instance, if you can clean a toilet better than me. That's not a useful skill to have unless you're a janitor
Some people are competition nuts. It starts when they are children. The parents push the kids to compete in school and in sports. And it really brainwashes the kids to be adult idiots. School is for learning. Sports is for fun. Life is for living. Too many idiots in this world.
I don't think so.
You can be really competitive and still excel and do stuff just for yourself.
I'm hypercompetitive, but I do it to please me - not to measure up to other people. I do well and work hard and compete to make myself happy - not just to beat someone else out or 'do better' than them.
Competitive sports are not for idiots. It teaches an important life lesson - you don't just get stuff for participating in life. There's no A for attendance. You have to try, you have to learn, you have to apply yourself...no one is going to hand you anything.
People who want to perpetuate this 'feel good,' everyone-gets-a-trophy, let's-falsly-elevate-Johnny's-self-esteem garbage are the true idiots. Their kids are helpless, hopeless, entitled fools who just blame everyone else for their problems.
What fuels this attitude is envy. Awhile back, a wise man (probably the wisest) labeled envy a mind posion that steals one's enjoyment of life. I think that pretty much bears out. My guess is that, moment to moment, Norcal, JonathanLB and Bryan are pretty miserable people.
They'll have happiness one day, though, I'm sure ... just as soon as they obtain the biggest, best, fastest, -est, -est, etc., etc. Once a person or a nation can easily provide for basic needs, further accumulation doesn't do anything to increase happiness. Scientific study after study verifies what keen observers have known for centuries.
Life is not a competition. It's whatever you want it to be. I want to be content with what I have and wish others well on accumulating whatever they think it is they need.
I don't think so.
You can be really competitive and still excel and do stuff just for yourself.
I'm hypercompetitive, but I do it to please me - not to measure up to other people. I do well and work hard and compete to make myself happy - not just to beat someone else out or 'do better' than them.
Competitive sports are not for idiots. It teaches an important life lesson - you don't just get stuff for participating in life. There's no A for attendance. You have to try, you have to learn, you have to apply yourself...no one is going to hand you anything.
People who want to perpetuate this 'feel good,' everyone-gets-a-trophy, let's-falsly-elevate-Johnny's-self-esteem garbage are the true idiots. Their kids are helpless, hopeless, entitled fools who just blame everyone else for their problems.
There's almost a valid point mucking around in this, but you go way too far. True, it's a valuable life lesson to learn that one "wins" by staying engaged and focused on the events at hand. Competitive sports can be a great way for teaching this.
Another valuable life lesson is that at the end of the day, if you've done your best, it's ok if you didn't win the prize -- particularily if that prize is defined by someone else. Kids who learn that "trophies" are the end-all be-all and should be chased at all costs grow up to be adults who are easily manipulated and controlled .. by those who define the trophies. Think of the guy who works 16-hour days so he can drive a stupid car no one really cares about, not even him.
There's almost a valid point mucking around in this, but you go way too far. True, it's a valuable life lesson to learn that one "wins" by staying engaged and focused on the events at hand. Competitive sports can be a great way for teaching this.
Another valuable life lesson is that at the end of the day, if you've done your best, it's ok if you didn't win the prize -- particularily if that prize is defined by someone else. Kids who learn that "trophies" are the end-all be-all and should be chased at all costs grow up to be adults who are easily manipulated and controlled .. by those who define the trophies. Think of the guy who works 16-hour days so he can drive a stupid car no one really cares about, not even him.
That guy is stupid because he bought something he didn't really want or need. Not because he works 16 hours a day. If he did that to support something that really was his own dream, then power to him.
That guy is stupid because he bought something he didn't really want or need. Not because he works 16 hours a day. If he did that to support something that really was his own dream, then power to him.
Stan is right, and WestCobb sorry but you're pretty clueless. It's a mix of not understanding what we're saying and not understanding the basics of human psychology.
I don't work my butt off and dedicate myself to great goals because I think one day it will make me happy, I do so because it makes me happy *right now* to be pursuing such goals! I love what I do, I have the greatest job in the world in my opinion, because it's what I've always wanted. I would be a filmmaker whether it had the potential to make me wealthy or not. It's more of a bonus that if you really make it big, you'll be extremely rich. Most people won't be, and it's a bad industry to enter thinking you'll get rich, you have to do it for the passion, because you feel like you have stories to tell and that you won't be happy doing anything else.
It's also totally wrong (and a communist viewpoint, at that) that we'd all be perfectly happy with the bare minimum. No, we wouldn't be. And yes, having more money will make me even happier, unquestionably. I got a new car this year, it's one I had my eyes on since it was a concept car, and it's fast, awesome, cool, etc., and makes my day better just driving it. When I have even more money, probably next year, I want to pick up a vacation condo in Vegas, which is going to be a lot of fun and allow me to go to a city I really enjoy more often. If I had more money, I'd eat out more often at some of the nicer restaurants here. Money makes everything possible. By itself it's just a tool, but a very powerful tool when used properly.
To say I would be just as happy in a tiny apartment in a run-down area of town with nothing cool around me and a lousy car, but all of the bare necessities, is just silly.
It's not ultimately about the competition with other people, that is just part of the reality. If I'm going to make it as a big filmmaker, there have to be 1,000 other people who fail, 10,000 other people who fail, to do the same thing. We can't all make it, because that's not how life works. The vast majority will never make it at all, some will hang around the fringes, others will get solid work in the industry but never be rich, others will get better work but never be more than moderately successful. In fact, most of the people I know from 3 years ago from film school have already moved on to other pursuits and the ones who are "in the industry" to some extent don't make any money or are just on the fringes. So the competition element, it's not competition just for itself, it's towards a goal -- I know I have to work harder, learn more, be more dedicated, and have better ideas than the people around me if I want to make it. That's just the reality.
I think competition in general is fun, though, it makes you strive to accomplish things that are worthy of celebration. And for your information, I'm a happy guy, and will continue to be a happier guy, as my dreams come closer to realization. I have always maintained a good, positive outlook on life, but also sacrificed the present for the future many times, towards a goal, and this year I directed my first film, so those dreams were worth pursuing. The greatest competition is with yourself and your own expectations and standards, if you're highly motivated.
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