The Grow Team: Seedlings Book Club discussion

The philosopher does not believe that life is a competition, because everyone is in the same level playing field - just people who are moving forward and other people moving forward behind you. Do you agree with this? Can competition be healthy and necessary? Or is it something that should be avoided?

I agree with the philosopher on this point. If we constantly compete with others, how can we feel genuine happiness for others' success and achievements? Competition breeds jealousy and envy and makes you treat others as rivals. You constantly worry about winning and coming out on top or being better than the other person and you spend too much time comparing your life to others. The only person you should be competing with is yourself. If everyone saw each other as comrades we could support each other's growth with joy. Life isn't a race or competition, it's a journey to be experienced.

I think this can go both ways, life itself isn't a competition neccesarily. At the same time, there are things in life that are, like sports for example and it's up to the individual to choose whether they want to participate or not and within those competitions and there are healthy ways of composing yourself. Sometimes being competitive can help you become better at something you enjoy doing like learning how to be a team player and also giving props to the people you saw doing their best even if they're rivals in something.

It's hard to hear, I mean, I've always thought a little competition never heard nobody but I guess it makes sense to understand that we are all going on the same direction and there's nothing to compete about. It just might seem that it makes no sense when you can clearly see yourself competing with others in certain aspects of life, I guess the real question is with one self asking what would make us feel better, keep on thinking we are competing or letting go of competition and try this new way of thinking. At the end I guess this is the best about philosophy you can take out whatever serves you and let go of what doesn't

I think competition can be healthy, if the main goal in the end is productive and not harmful to anyone. For example, I've been doing Peloton for two weeks now, and some people can choose to do the leaderboard and push themselves to be better in their output. Superficially, yes you are competing with someone (or more people) to be up that leaderboard, but really, you are also competing with yourself to be better than you were a few minutes ago. This ends up with all of the people in the ride pushing themselves and each other to be better in the end.

Maybe competition is not healthy if harm is directed to another and competition becomes malicious. It's as if someone is stepping over you and you don't feel good after that competition/battle/face off or what have you.

You all make very good points. competition in some instances make sense as it can push you to improve yourself. a friendly rivalry can be motivating. seeing someone as an enemy can make competition negative. so maybe it's the perspective you have of competition and the intention behind it that makes life feel like a battleground and full of enemies. competition for the sake of personal growth is good once it makes you feel good. if you start to feel negative and get into a spiral of comparing and jealousy and pity then you should probably reevaluate why your competing and the cause of your unhappiness.

I def agree.Because when other's light starts to shine.It is important to remember that your light does not get dimmer.