Ep 430 | The Highest Form of Competition

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I want to talk about competition. If you're in business, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're looking to build a really big life, the reality is you are going to be competing, competing against others, competing against your environment, competing against yourself. And so I think the better understanding we have of competition and how it impacts us and the steps we take, the action steps we take, our motivation, if we better understand competition, it could allow for us to have greater levels of success. Let me explain. I've been thinking a lot about competition as of late because I am, uh, I have gotten pretty deep into this endurance world. I'm just really intrigued by endurance competitions or endurance races beyond just marathon type of running or longer hikes like, like I've been doing as of late. I'm just super intrigued by pushing yourself, your body, your mind to, I guess, the furthest level you could possibly push it. It's probably a conversation for another day, but there's just so much you learn when you're pushing yourself to that lit— that, that, that level, that, that, that brink of exhaustion or fatigue or failure, you know, pushing yourself to that, that cusp of where things could go sideways. We'll talk about that another day, but As I've been working through that in my mind and as I've been studying endurance racing, I've kind of, I guess, seen or realized that there are different levels of competition in business and in life, and each of these forms of competition serve a role of some sort. Let's dive a little deeper. So I think after kind of considering this a bit, that there are really three forms of competition. The first form is one we all know too well, competition against others. So competition against others, as you probably know, this is certainly the most common form of competition. This is where success is measured on a scoreboard, specifically a scoreboard that pits you against somebody else or another team. So the most common form of competition, competition against others, is where your success is measured by outperforming the opposition, others. So examples would be winning a race or winning a game or beating a competitor in business. Now, the external focus here is a characteristic of competing with others, competition against others. There's an external focus. The success depends on external benchmarks. The motivation comes from a desire for recognition or status or rewards. So winning is the motivation. Beating another team or an opponent gets or usually gets, comes with some recognition, some status, some reward. Now there are some limitations to competition against others. The limitations that come to mind for me This sort of competition may lead to frustration if, especially if external circumstances like an unbeatable competitor make success unattainable. So, it's incredibly frustrating if you don't see a path to victory. It can also, and more importantly, foster some degree of unhealthy comparison. Competition against others can prompt unhealthy comparison. So, the first form of competition is competition against others, is the one we all know too well and is the most common form. The next form of competition that comes to mind for me is really competition with, let's call it, the environment. This would be competing against external challenges or obstacles rather than against another team or another individual. So, this is when it's you against or your team against a challenge or an obstacle. So, an example would be maybe surviving some sort of harsh condition like you'll see in mountaineering or in ultramarathons, for example, in extreme climates. You're competing against the environment, the climate, or the mountain, or whatever the harsh condition may be. Maybe another example would be navigating some sort of unpredictable market in business. So in real estate, when there's a downturn in real estate, as, as we've all experienced or lived through, at some point, navigating that unpredictable market would be competition with the environment. Now, what are the characteristics of this sort of competition? The focus shifts from defeating others to overcoming challenges, and it encourages resilience, adaptability, and resource— and resourcefulness, right? So there's a difference here when we're competing against the environment. Obviously, it goes without saying that competing against someone else. There's some limitations here though too. The limitation is that success is still somewhat dictated by external factors that are beyond our control. Those harsh condition— conditions, we can control how we react to them. We can control how we react to an unpredictable market, but we don't have control over the actual conditions or the market in those examples. Now, the last form of competition and the one that kind of drove this topic just in general for me. I think the highest form of competition is self-competition. Self-competition. And what is really— what is self-competition? It's striving to surpass your own internal limits, striving to surpass your own previous performance. Examples of this would be, um, I ran the New York City Marathon and and I had a personal record or personal best. And so, when I strive to beat that personal best, I am competing against myself. It is me versus me. Maybe another example of self-competition, maybe it's improving skills or breaking personal habits that don't serve you. These would be ways to compete with yourself. So, the highest form is of competition is self-competition. What are some of the characteristics of self-competition? There's an internal focus. Success is measured by personal growth. It's measured by self-improvement. It's not measured on a scoreboard necessarily in all cases. And it also promotes introspection. It, it promotes intrinsic motivation. It has a focus on self-discipline. Now, why do I think self-competition is the strongest form? Well, it's because— or the highest form, I should say— it's because the journey that we're describing here is very much self-directed. It emphasizes mastery over ego. And more importantly, I think self-competition really aligns closely with long-term fulfillment, with purpose, with progress that we are able to monitor or self-define. So, there's unlimited growth potential in self-competition. There's always room to improve or learn. And as I mentioned, it really builds resilience. You're less affected by external wins or losses. You're more concerned about what's going on inside. So, why am I talking about the forms of competition here? I think that all forms of competition are necessary. We need something to compete against. We need someone to compete against. This fuels us, right? I don't care who you are, you are likely motivated to some degree to outperform someone else or something else, right? Now, some are certainly more motivated than others, but competition against others is a great thing. There are downsides to it. But we all need this fuel. So, there's benefit to that form of competition. There's also benefit to competing with the environment, right? Like navigating an unpredictable market, it shifts your focus from going against others to overcoming challenges. And overcoming these challenges is ultimately what builds resilience and adaptability, makes you more resourceful. So, we all need competition with an environment. But I think one that we neglect and we don't take serious enough, that we all can benefit from incorporating into our, our world at a higher level, is self-competition. The highest form of competition is self-competition, competing with yourself to be better than the version of you just yesterday. No surprise, that's a lot of what this No Days Off movement is all about. We aim to get better every single day. And the way we do that is by analyzing where we're presently at today as an individual and looking to improve or up our game, our game, the next day and the next day and the next day. That is a form, of course, of self-competition. That's improving our skills. That's developing our personal habits. We all need to incorporate self-competition. And again, that's one that takes a little bit more effort from time to time, but it will, it will serve us well in our journey to get a bit more successful, to become a bit more successful. So the focusing question for you today: of these forms of competition, how are you leveraging these different forms in your world? And How can you create a bit more self-competition, the highest form of competition in your world? In doing so, how will you build more resilience? How will you grow personally? And how will your journey find itself to be a bit more self-directed as you're emphasizing mastery? That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get out.