Member-only story
It’s Time To Stop Competing and Start Celebrating
What writers can learn from the Tokyo 2020 men’s high jump final about competition and celebrating with our friends
Writing is a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to be. Having a team of people who push me forward and hold me accountable, and elevates my writing. However, sometimes seeing success others achieve or projects that they land causes feelings of jealousy. For some reason, it feels like other writers are my competition — when they win a client, I lose the same client.
A recent MIT study explored how competition impedes creativity. The research showed “some competition is needed to motivate high performers to develop original, untested ideas over tweaking their earlier work, but heavy competition drives them to stop investing altogether.”¹
Seeing other writers land big, successful gigs causes me to reevaluate what I’m doing wrong. In reality, I’m often not doing anything wrong, and there are more than enough projects available for us all. Maybe, instead of giving into the competitive mindset, it’s time to start celebrating each other’s successes.
The Olympics just wrapped up in Tokyo. The world came together and the greatest athletes from around the world competed for two weeks to determine the best…
