Is everyone instinctively competitive?
Meet Beau and Titan, the visiting Newfoundland puppies who come to be socialized with Teddy, our German Shepherd. Beau and Titan belong to Lee, a friend of my sons, and his dad. Titan is Lee’s and Beau is his dad’s puppy.
At 10 weeks old, they compete to get the same toys. Even when I give them identical toys, they fight to get the one the other one has. Lee insists that Titan is the alpha male but I see Beau (red collar) show his leadership roles too.
Whether you admit it or not, there is a streak of competitiveness is most people, especially if they are trying to be successful in their career or business.
Competitiveness comes out in multiple aspect of our lives. 
Whether it is the backyard basketball game or other sporting activity, you will find people who are driven to succeed and reach their goals.
For me, I do everything better if I even create a real or even imaginary competition with another person or even myself.
In 2007, I was very successful in getting physically fit because I had a friend who was on the same mission.
It didn’t matter who lost the most weight but I wanted to be able to say I made progress and so I kept walking and exercising and finding creative ways to motivate me. A constant battle for most people, staying healthy and fit is a lifelong goal and little competitions keep me going.
I compete with myself to get projects completed, setting little goals and feeling a victory when I achieve them. I work with many clients in the sales field and they too are motivated by competitions. Some bask in winning the title of their region while others relish a reward trip to Jamaica or Hawaii and work extra hard to get there.
Healthy Competitions
For a job seeker to be successful in their search, they need to incorporate some competitiveness in their search. Kimba Green and Jonathan Krass had a #hireher / #hirehim competition going around the time I wrote about their social media job searches. The twin posts that were launched on the same day are still two of my most popular posts.
If you set little goals for your self as a job seeker, you can build upon your success.
Jason Alba’s JibberJobber is built on the principal of tracking and goal setting in your job search. Jason is as competitive as I am when it comes to setting personal or business goals. He’s got a goal of walking 500 miles this year and is making great progress. You can see him list his progress on Twitter.
What are your goals as a job seeker? and do you think running little competitions will help you reach your goals?
4 Comments
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The 500 mile goal has been interesting… one thing I’ve heard from others is that they are walking/running also, but didn’t think about tracking it over time.
In the last 6 months I’ve found that I’m really good some weeks and not good other weeks…. but monitoring it over time is allowing me to make continual progress.
What gets measured gets improved… right?
Yes, Jason, measuring against goals let’s you tweak things and I think adds to more success in the long run. I track lots of things and find myself more motivated as I work toward them! So what’s the current number and can I still catch up with you? I get snow here!
Healthy competition that produces good results can’t be beat – even if it’s in our mind. I like the idea of using it as an opportunity to discern differences in order to focus on uniqueness.
It’s kind of like pizza… Little Caesar’s has single topping large pizzas hot and ready all the time for a set price, Papa John’s has a unique garlic dipping sauce and Pizza Hut has a variety of different pizza crusts available to choose from. They are all competitors, but each is unique in how they play the game and they all play it well.
Thanks for getting me thinking about this again!
.-= Bridget Haymond´s last blog ..4 Tools to Promote Super-Focus =-.
You’re making me hungry, Bridget! 🙂 but you are right. Product differentiation is a great form of competition and it helps set you apart. For job seekers who are the Product, they need to find those differentiation points from others in their field.