Compete To Be Unique

The greatest challenge facing many people and organizations today is their inability to stand out when what they are offering appears to most people as the same products or services that everyone else is offering.

When we continually compete and compare ourselves to others, we become trapped in their game, and worse – we lose all creative freedom to express the best of ourselves. Without creative freedom, we lose the ability to uniquely shape our businesses, our lives and our world. We become mechanical in our approach and miss out on pure enjoyment of being ourselves.

It’s time to stop competing to be the best in the same game everyone else is playing. It’s time to create your own game and your own playing field. So how do you create this “competitive free” zone and truly set yourself apart from the competition? The answer is simple – BE different, and not just for appearance sake, you must truly BE unique.

The good news is you are unique – there is no one else in the world just like you. Any person, professional or organization can create their own “competitive free” zone by first identifying, then announcing to the world, their own UNIQUE contribution.

People that compete to be unique feel compelled to express the best that is within them. They don’t strive to be better than others; they strive to become better than themselves. Their greatest competition is not the competition with others, rather it is the competition they have with themselves. After all, no one can be better at being you, than you.

While everyone is playing the conventional game and trying to be the best in that game, step out and play your own game by expressing who you are through what you do.

Those who compete to be unique are not as focused on conventional ways of doing things but rather more on what makes them come alive and light up while doing it! They know that ultimately what the world needs is more people and organizations operating with passion, purpose and authenticity.

The greatest never-ending motivational force is joyful passion, not conformity, fear or ego. When you spend your life being who you are, doing things the way you love to do them, you are 100% engaged. You are fully present in that moment, time flies by and you are almost lost in your creative thoughts and work. It is this pure presence that produces exceptional work the world gets to enjoy.

WHEN IT COMES TO BUSINESS

Most authentically unique people work for the pure enjoyment it brings to their lives as well as the lives of others. Their passion and enthusiasm transcend into an enormous positive impact and contribution to the lives of their customers. This is not magic, although it can be magical. This is the attraction process.

Competing to be unique not only requires you to decide who you are and what you are going to do but it also requires you to decide who you are not and what you are not going to do. You cannot be everything to everyone and competing to be unique will bring with it many critics as you are not trying to conform, you are trying to create. What we are discussing here is very difficult because it challenges conventional wisdom and requires a leap of faith. It will require letting go of some old conditioned beliefs; the ones that trap us and keep our businesses and our lives small. Trust your vision and release the greatness that lies within you.

This will require you to move away from thinking about success to thinking about success to thinking about significance; from thinking about what you are going to “get” to thinking about what you are going to give and contribute. What is the unique and meaningful contribution you are going to make to others and the world? What we do is not as important as the authenticity we bring to our work. This is called our authentic intention.

CREATING A COMPETITIVE FREE ZONE

In business, we are often caught in what’s called a commodity trap or “competitive convergence” which is when we are competing primarily on price because in the consumer’s eye, we all look the same.

"The greatest never-ending motivational force is joyful passion, not conformity, fear or ego. When you spend your life being who you are, doing things the way you love to do them, you are 100% engaged."

When we make a unique contribution, we create our own competitive free zone, and no longer pursue business but attract it. When an organization or person reaches the point of attracting business, it can then spend more time improving the value of products/services it delivers and creating a better customer experience, rather than spending most or all of its time on business development.

When you and/or company are truly unique, you become an industry leader embodying the attraction process and enter a competitive free zone. Here, business becomes an absolute pleasure! You will begin to give up non-productive and unprofitable and mutually rewarding relationships where you share common values.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a teenager, a stay at home parent, a taxi driver, a server in a restaurant, an employee, a commissioned sales person, an owner of a small business or the CEO of a multinational organization, everyone can compete to be unique.