the best form of competition is with urself - i feel most of my life + 20s the obsession was with beating other people...e.g. team sports, rivalries, beating other traders..other banks etc. the problem is when u get fixated with "beating other people" it turns into an obsession on the relativity between you and your rival, which can often result in a net negative impact to urself. this is most prevalent in trading, it's like, "we both own $XXX, this means i MUST own something else to outperform" and thus your judgement of what you think the best performing asset is clouded by your obsession to own something "this guy doesn't own" or "no one else does" in order to outperform. it's def one of those things that changes with age, as u get older and have less time to compete with others, you naturally end up competing with yourself (really basic example is the ability to regularly play football for a team when ur young, vs only having time to go for a 45-min run when ur older). but i reckon the sooner u can come to terms with channelling obsession of competing towards yourself, rather than others, the faster your track to self improvement can be, which unironically results in a more sustainable path to beating others. random thought of the day.
