#114: Community and Cooperation vs Competition and Comparison

In a world with social media, we can get caught in a cycle of competition with our peers.

Thinking that other people are copying us. That they’re offering the same products as us. That they’re encroaching on our lane.

This prevents collaboration from happening.

Needing to be the best. Fear of someone coming into our market. These are all scarcity feelings. The flare up of our emotions is not something to indulge in and act on. Call out your feelings, see if they’re rooted in competition and scarcity, and then see if you can lean into feelings of collaboration and abundance.

Recently, while recording an episode with Gay Hendricks (the author of the Big Leap – stay tuned for his episode) he said the number one killer of creativity is control. When we’re focusing on what other people are doing, we’re creating a container that’s controlled, instead of creating a container that can nourish our ideas and ourselves.

As entrepreneurs, the backbone of our business is creating something out of nothing.

If we’re worried about what other people are doing, and that they’re competing with us and us them, all of those things are going to flare up the controlling part of us. When we think power is limited to those at the top, we will try to control ourselves to play the game the way we think we have to play it. This control will kill creativity.

When we look at creation from a collaborative mindset, we’re so much richer for it. Nothing is created in a silo. The best things in our lives have been influenced by others.

Whether we’re crippled by fear or driven to create something copy-cat, neither option is going to be helpful.

Let’s all try to create more collaboration and community in our lives vs comparison and competition.

Creativity is where we come alive, it’s what fuels us and our businesses. It’s going to look different for all of us, and that is why we need community and collaboration; we all bring something unique to the table.

Remember, what if bravery is giving something your absolute all without any guarantee that it will work out? Don’t give into the fear of comparison and competition.

It’s a conscious choice to lean into collaboration over competition. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

On this episode, I cover: