Stop Competing All of the Time
Whether it’s people who either have a deeper level of understanding for certain fields, subjects or concepts than you, or people who simply demonstrate a higher level of awareness than you in general, you should try to learn from others instead of constantly trying to compete against them.
The biggest problem with the ideologue mindset and worldview is that it’s rooted in competition. Competition is based in pride and vanity, as it’s necessarily the desire to prevail over others and/or achieve means by which to justify status beliefs, or the view and belief of being superior to others.
You can’t learn anything if you’re too proud to listen, pay attention to or consider the proffering of anyone who doesn’t reflect your values, beliefs, identity and general sense of self-worth back to you; and you can’t listen, pay attention to or consider the proffering of anyone who you perceive as competition, as the goal of competition is to “defeat” (silence, injure, repel, humiliate, destroy, punish) opposition, so as to prevail over them.
The thinking of the Ideologue: “Us v Them! Me v Everybody! My group v that group, and then me against everyone in my group! Everybody’s against me! It’s me against the world! Compete! Compete! Compete! Go team! Everyone cheer and uplift me, but also envy and fear me at the same time! I’m the most important! I’m the winner! Win! Win! Win!”
A competitive mind is highly paradoxical, and it makes people think and perform stupidly — especially when and if they don’t know and never learn how to turn it off.
Stop competing all the time. Learn how to recognize, cooperate and sync up with reality, sound reasoning, and with what’s actually happening around you instead.
Learn how to recognize and adjust to the world around you, instead of constantly trying to force your will and status beliefs onto everyone and everything you happen across. Learn how to observe and actually take information and reality in, and consider, weigh and process information, data, reports and sensations and stimulations properly, instead of trying to compete against everyone and everything that doesn’t present itself to you as an ideological mirror.
You are not the star of everything. Constantly trying to compete against others is highly narcissistic, in that it’s necessarily an attempt to subjugate others to your identity and status beliefs — your feelings of potency and beliefs of inherent or merit-based superiority.
Reality has a beautiful way of destroying beliefs — notably status beliefs.