The Competition Is With You
The rat race. As your teen matures to be more responsible they enter what is lovingly referred to as the rat race, Life. Although it can be a battle of trying to get ahead, the question is always, “Who are you trying to get ahead of?” There can be the false sense that you are trying to get ahead of others when in fact to truly be successful, you have to compete with yourself. You have to do better than you did yesterday.
This can be a difficult concept for a teen to understand when they are concrete thinkers, meaning they lack the ability to think about future consequences of their current behavior. The competition they see looks like what it is, competition with others. As your teen develops out of this mind set of comparing themselves to their peers, they will focus on how well they are doing and how they can improve themselves. When they do that, they will notice how they can be a better student, athlete, son or daughter than they were before. This will make them a better employee or boss, spouse, relative or parent.
This competition with you is what makes someone a better anything. Focusing on what others are doing slows someone down. It takes the focus off “what can I do to be better” and puts the focus on “I wonder how I am not as good as you.” Getting teens out of the mind set of comparing themselves to others and changing that to improve themselves to better is the only way they can be the best they can be.
Related posts:
