My favorite ways to be athletic are non-competitive. My favorite video games are couch-coop. I’m a social eater. I love collaboration. I like being physical too. I used to invite tons of people to go with me to batting cages.
I know this is wildly hypothetical. Imagine Michael Jordan has a choice… he can choose a basketball career where he get’s all the fun and challenge of the sport, he gets to work with a team, he gets to make a ton of money, and he gets to win and he can do it completely without comparing or competing with anyone else.
Numerous studies have shown that corporate environments where there’s competition between employees are less productive, less ethical, more stressful, and less lucrative.
What do we dislike about social media? the comparison, the competition.
Games are great
Games are behind every single thing that we do. Some board games and sports are set up completely dependent on competition. Every game needs 3 things – A worthy goal, the adequate amount of cost / challenge, and control.
Competition isn’t the only way to make a game, but it’s often cited as required for gamification
Within a competitive structure…
Goal : get validation from self and others by being comparitively worthy
Challenge : the challenge increases as our competitors increase their skills
Control : we can see weaknesses in our competition
The alternative…
Instead of trying to get validation from claiming a piece of a scarce pie, We can get validation from doing good things and being around loving people. Instead of depending on competition to add to our challenge, we can constantly find new games to play that are leveling up from prior experiences. Instead of looking to take something from others, we can find a feeling of control by making tasks easy and living in our wheelhouses.
Take action now…
We can pick one thing in our lives that’s been dragging for us. Then, root out the competition aspect of it so we can get it done. When I’m trying to bake bread so my friends can eat it, it’s way more motivating & fun than trying to bake bread because everyone else at the potluck will bring some great food.
Play the game WITH others