When we talk of competition, the first thing that comes to
mind is when two or more people are competing against each other but I will like
to expose us to the fact that competition can also be within one person and
that is the essence of this article.
But before I go any further, I will like to ask this
question.
What is competition?
"The dictionary obviously describes
Competition as an act that involves two or more objects, in order to gain a
profit or get a reward for being outstanding."
In as much as I would like to agree with this definition
above, I want to add that competition can also be practiced by one person alone
and let me briefly explain:
I describe competition as a way whereby you set a goal and
strive to achieve it, but this can be done by one person or among many people
at the same time. If you set a goal to be better than you were yesterday, you
have no choice than to compete with yourself or these
factors such as laziness, food, friends, discouraging words and other limiting
factors will set in and they would want to prevent you from achieving that
goal. When your mind is set to achieve a goal, you should place yourself around
those that can help you to achieve it; even though the competition is still for
you and for yourself alone.
In most cases, people tend to think of competition as a way
whereby you stay ahead of other people or where you are competing with others
to win a race but in the actual sense, competition goes beyond that and it
should be an inward decision for a person/business to be competitive with its
previous successes.
Let me explain a little further...
For instance, an athlete is competing with other athletes and
they are all preparing for the same rac
e. I believe that, most of the times, it
is the athlete that either practises more and prepares very well that ends up
winning the race while others come behind. But what if they all decide not to
practise at all because they feel that others wouldn’t practise as well or they
are just mere lazy to stretch further in winning the race? Then it becomes
obvious that the level of the competition is now determinant on the level of
the preparation of all the competitors or athletes in the illustration above;
but if you’re simply competing with yourself and not another person, then it
becomes irrelevant whether someone else (i.e. your competitor/athlete) is
practicing or not.
It is therefore imperative that we all look inwardly and try
to only compete with our previous successes and achievements rather than
looking elsewhere for competitors or who to compete with. In whatever you do,
you must have achieved something before and your focus should be on how to do things
bigger and better on a daily basis and by the end of the year, you would look
back and realize that you’ve actually been stretching yourself to become
better. Your previous achievement should not be your finishing line but rather, it should be your starting point for greater things and that is where your own
personal competition starts from. In
your Goals
process, make your first great achievement to be your guideline to
other future achievements and ensure that you don’t go below that ACHIEVEMENT STANDARD that you’ve set
for yourself. It will also benefit you to develop a KPI (i.e. Metric) that
helps you to understand when you’re falling out of your ‘Achievement Standard’.
In the process of analysing your competition, it must be
based on your ‘Achievement Standard’ and if the achievement ascribe to any
competition is below your standard, then it is not the best option for you and
should not be given any priority.
Competitive analysis can also be described as a review
and analysis of all our competitions (both inward and outward), whether they
are past, present or future competitions.
There are two types of Competition.
- Inward
competition: (i.e. Competition with self and within.)
- Outward
competition: (i.e. Competition with others and without.)
There‘s always a motive behind every competition and the
reason must be genuine enough for you to embark on the journey of competing
with yourself or other people.
We must ensure that our past achievements in all previous
competitions do not surpass our present achievement, while the present
achievement doesn’t surpass the future ones... This is what I called, GROWING
UP STEADILY (GUS).
And I can also connect this article on Competitive analysis
to one of Abraham Lincoln’s numerous quotes: “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was
yesterday.”
In conclusion, I want to believe that many people will now
agree with me that they should focus more on their own personal competition and
think less upon competing with other people or businesses. (i.e. Your competition
should be dependent on your past achievements.)
Analyze your competition wisely and you would not be
competing wrongly.
By Temitayo Oyediran,
Director, Teesoft Limited.
(Teesoft
Limited is a consulting and coaching company with expertise in project
management, service management, business analysis and personal/corporate
coaching.)
