The Competition.

"When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you." ~ Zig Ziglar.

Two guys were out hiking in the woods when they came across a huge grizzly bear. They turned to each other in horror as the beast bounded toward them, expecting a tasty human treat for dinner. As they took off running one guy turns to the other and says ~ "We are never going to outrun this bear" and the other guy says to him ~ "I don't have to outrun the bear - I've just got to outrun you".

Who do you compete with? Some people say the only person we really need to compete with is ourself. Perhaps that's true in the philosophical world but in the real world we compete both against ourself and others. Let's be honest. There are people and companies out there that we want to do better than and although focusing on exceeding our own personal standards is certainly essential we need to be aware of, and beat, competition as well. So how do we do that?

Just set your own personal standards above everyone else and constantly strive to do what it takes to exceed those standards. 
As we row through life, to beat the sharks of competition that follow our canoe, we need to remind ourselves to embrace an attitude that says:
 
When we encounter someone who is doing something better than we are, learn from them and do better. When we encounter someone who is a better person - learn from them and be better. When we meet someone smarter - learn from them and be smarter. If we know of someone who works harder - learn from them and work harder.

We all can be better ~ and when we are tougher on ourselves life is going to be infinitely easier on us. ~ So what's the bottom line? 

The shark following our canoe is complacency. The Bear we need to outrun is complacency. Beat complacency and we beat competition.