I used to be one of the top students in my class and in my small “niche” when I was young. However, the older I got, the more I started to wonder what the whole point was. I easily used to get 95-100% on assignments or tests in the beginning of the year in highschool, then kind of taper off because of burnout since my physique was my most major weakness at that time. Up until then, my parent’s pressure kept me going, as well as personal interest in my studies. I enjoyed my teachers who seemed to be great motivators and mentors.
I would see certain students with 97% averages (I was friends with one of them) and kind of wonder what the whole point was trying to “be the best”. People who did this were not necessarily happier people and all the hard work and drive to prove superiority or higher achievement over another would lead to a short term feeling of satisfaction of “proving that one’s better”. Then if you were to go to the top, you would go through all the stress, competition and pain trying to maintain it…until you find another person better than you and the whole process would repeat itself. It doesn’t always necessarily mean that these people are necessarily better people either. The ones I’ve met were downright narcissistic on a pathological level (and lie to preserve a perfect image), were obnoxious, and generally not well liked either.
So what motivates these cutthroat competitive people? Their short term feeling of satisfaction of “superiority”? All that hard work, strained relationships, all for that? Or is it to please their parents?
Just wondering what you think of this.
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What Drives People To Do Try And Be The Best Through Competition?
Posted on June 28, 2011.
Personally, My Parents & Other Relatives Drive Me To Excel & Do My Best. My Mother ALWAYS Instill In Me That Education Is Key. Also, I Just Like Being At The “Top”. xD
When I Was Told That I Was Number 43 Out Of 690 Freshman Students, I Told Myself That In My Sophomore Year I Will Definitely STRIVE To Do Better. I Don’t Know…I Guess It’s Just In My Genes. My Family Likes To Succeed, I Mean Who Wouldn’t? đŸ™‚
The answer is primarily a psychological and sociological one, which primarily lies outside the domain of philosophy. Philosophically, it is about expectation of reward and happiness. In practical terms, in the working, especially in capitalist societies, high achievers generally fare the best financially, but philosophically that sort of success isn’t everything to everybody.
I think it’s egotism. If people stopped trying so hard, life would be much easier.
I think its a basic survival instinct manifesting itself in the modern age we live in.
The cave man with the most “drive” to kill dinner lived another day – the ones with less “drive” simply perished – and this drive was passed down to modern man.
Its simple, its the pride of life. People always want to be better then others to make themselves feel better. like buying a more expensive car then they can afford. Pride of life is one of the 3 deadly sins.