From Competitive to Creative: A Different Mindset

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I want to share something with you that I pray will shed light on some things for you.

Lately, I have been thinking about something and it has caused me to change my perspective on a whole lot things.

"Am I CREATING the life that I desire or am I COMPETING for it?"

This thought came about as I was researching and reading some material the other day. And I must admit that I have not been able to get this thought out of my head.

The reason it has such a strong hold on me is that it caught me off guard and sucker punched me.

It made me realize how I have been competing, trying to make certain things go or be a certain way and all to no avail. I was trying to design my  life with a competitive mind, instead of a creative one.
I'll give you an example. This Soulful Sandstone blog. With this blog, I was so concerned with getting readers, trying to build my blog and Facebook page reader list so that they would be larger than others, in terms of readership. My mindset was that I could write as well as, and in a lot of instances, better than others, so my mindset was I should have more people reading my blog than theirs.

Boy, was that the wrong mindset to have. That is why that thought 'sucker punched' me, hard.

Having the mind that I'm an excellent writer and therefore should have more readers, was having the mindset that there is a limited number of readers, so I'd better do what I can to get those people to read my  posts. And that is not the case at all. Realizing this now, my new thought surrounding this blog is "There are almost 7 Billion people in the world and those who find that my blog adds value to their lives, who find that it has helped them in some way, will continue come back for more."

There you have it! My whole mindest has changed from doing no thing in a competitive form, to doing every thing in a creative form. I want to do whatever it is to add value to the lives of others, that value being in whatever form they receive it; inspiration, encouragement, confirmation, information, or however it is perceived by the one who is receiving it.

Competition versus Creation
I now understand that life is not about competing for what you want. Instead, it is about creating the life that you want. When you do things from the mindset of COMPETITION, what you are saying is that someone has to win, while the other loses; that there is only a limited supply, which is a mindset of lack.

When you think of those who compete compared to those who create, the creator always seem to come out successful. Thinking about those who play sports, which is all about competing, my mind goes directly to those who are very successful at what they do; Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and other great athletes. One thing that I've found that each of these greats have in common, is that I have never heard either of them speak of their matches or their opponents in a competitive way, meaning that they did not talk trash to them or speak ill of them in order to make themselves appear to be the best. Absolutely not!

And although each of them are in the game of competing, they do so with mindset of creating their way to success, instead of competing their way to success. What do I mean by that? Each of those people have the mindset that they don't have to classify someone else as a loser in order for them to be a winner. They play their respective sport with the mindset of doing it for fun, being great at it, not only for themselves, but also for the fans who pay to see them, thereby creating a valuable experience for their fans. They also do it by creating a brand and a mindset of performing at their best, adding value to the companies that pay them to endorse their products. They create experiences that add value not only to their lives, but to the lives of others. That's having a creative mind.

On the other hand, there are those athletes who have made their craft purely about competing. I won't name them here, but I'm sure that some of them immediately popped into your minds when you read that. These type of people feel that they have to beat the other person down, in order to elevate themselves. They are the ones you see on TV talking mad trash about and to their opponents. And these very same people do not stay on top for long. As a matter of fact, more times than not, when they are in competitive mode and really dogging their opponent, they always end up losing, and usually in a bad way. That is because they had the wrong mindset. They made it a competition, all about them and not what they could do to enhance or add value to someone else.

When you think about the small business owner who has grown his business exponentially because he did so with the idea of how he could make the world better because of what he has to offer compared to the business owner who was only in business to make a buck, regardless of what the customer got out of it, which one do you think will sustain their business?

Think about relationships that are lopsided because one or both persons are in it for what they can get out of it. I believe that the divorce rate would decrease and relationship would be sustainable if people changed their mind from "What can you do for me?" or "What have you done for me lately?" to the midset of "How I can make your life better?" or " What can I do to create a wonderful experience for you?".

When you do things from a creative mind, you are doing it more from a place of love. And when you give love, it will return to you pressed down, shaken together and running over. You reap what you sow. Give love, receive love. Give disdain, receive disdain.

                               Creative is careFUL, whereas competitive is careLESS.

Life is not about competing, taking something away from someone else, or operating from a mindset that there is not enough to go around. It is just the opposite, about creating experiences, adding and enhancing the experiences of others and realizing that there is more than enough to go around.

God's supply is unlimited. Opportunities are endless. Possibilities are infinite.

It's all in how you choose to think, feel and act. Know that when you design your own experiences from a mind of creating the best experiences for you, instead of competing for them, you will move into your highest potential and live your best life.

I had to change how I thought about this in every area of my life. So, from this moment forward, each post that I write, every conversation  or interaction that I have, every experience that I share with others, it is my desire to add something of value to your life and not take away from it. And if that is not happening, then I beseech you, my sister and brother, to inform me of this. That's right, I am giving you permission to "Check me Boo!"

Have you been living your life from a CREATIVE mind or a COMPETITIVE mind? Do you know anyone who it seems as if they are always COMPETING for something or anything?

"Destined for Purpose: Empowered with Passion"