EP144  Competition Done Right: Ensuring a Focus on Mastery

Do you want to have a potent tool, using points, recognition, and healthy competition to motivate you? Proverbs 27:17 says.. “Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.”

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“Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17

Competition can be a powerful tool to increase our skills and skill level, but it needs to be used strategically. By keeping the competition manageable, focusing on the right benchmark, and creating a positive environment, you can leverage the power of competition to boost motivation and engagement in yourself, your team, and other individuals.

Competition is about going beyond just winning. Winning might feel good, but it’s temporary. True success lies in mastering new skills and knowledge. Here’s why:

WINNING means achieving victory at a specific time. It’s about performance in a single moment. Winning is fleeting. Think of basketball finals; teams play multiple games to decide the winner. There’s rarely one consistent winner throughout the series. Victories come and go in races, contests, and games.

MASTERY means gaining new knowledge, skills, or behaviors. It becomes a permanent part of your abilities. Learning to ride a bike is a great example; once you’ve mastered it, you can likely ride a bike forever!

In most competitions, only a few can win. But with dedication, effort, and the right guidance, almost anyone can master a new skill and gain a new level of knowledge. This is why competition experiences should emphasize mastery, not just winning.

Competitors can be categorized as either performance oriented or mastery oriented opponents.

PERFORMANCE ORIENTED opponents are heavily focused on winning and what others think of their abilities. Competition can push people in this direction, especially when the emphasis is on immediate goals like a race or points. These tend to be less risk taking, testing and experimentation, as people fear hurting their results.

MASTERY ORIENTED opponents are more concerned with improving their own skills and knowledge. People with a mastery orientation use mistakes as learning opportunities, seek challenging tasks to develop their abilities, believe strongly in their ability to succeed, persist longer when faced with difficulties, use more effective learning strategies, and perform better on complex tasks.

The key is to FOSTER A MASTERY ORIENTATION first by:

Acknowledging effort: Awards that recognize the effort put in, especially after achieving milestones, keep motivation high.

Focusing on positive feedback: Frame errors and mistakes as opportunities for targeted improvement and encouragement.

Tracking progress: Provide frequent updates on progress, highlighting improvement over time and what has already been accomplished.

The key is to get you and your rivals actively involved and invested in the competition. You want them to feel challenged. So make important decisions, experience the results of those decisions, and think deeply about increasing skill levels to achieve mastery.

Competitions that are too easy become boring fast. The magic happens when opponents face a challenge that feels just out of reach. This motivates individuals to work and learn to succeed. They should feel some uncertainty about the outcome: Can I solve this puzzle? Can I answer all the advances and get the win? Can I reach the next level?

Trigger your opponent: Test their knowledge and ability with your own progress provoking their response.

Hide your clues: Scatter hidden information throughout the competition to fire up the challenge.

Selective Random events: Introduce unexpected actions that shake your opponents when things seem to be predictable, keeping them on their toes.

A common mistake is making the competition experience too easy. Never underestimate your rival; give them a challenge to keep them engaged.

If you’re unsure of your opponent’s skill levels, consider offering different difficulty levels to ensure everyone faces obstacles that are challenging for them.

The challenge should force individuals to make significant choices that impact the outcome. The more an opponent requires thoughtful decisions, the more engaged opponents will feel. And every decision should have a consequence. Consequences personalize the competition experience and encourage reflection. Your opponents may even change their behavior based on the consequences. This encourages them to develop a plan or strategy for success.

A well-designed rivalry shouldn’t have a single, lucky solution. The ability to win using different strategies keeps things engaging and allows everyone to find approaches that work best for them.

Choose the Right Benchmark: You should strive to grow together. A healthy competition guarantees an environment where the challenge feels fair and achievable. People shouldn’t feel like they can’t win or that it’s having negative impacts on them and their lives. However, they need enough motivation to keep up with you and vice versa.

Performance-based competition doesn’t measure what you achieve, but how you act. It rewards the actions that bring you to new skills and knowledge.

So, Forget short-term wins ,Mastering skills and knowledge brings lasting rewards, far more than a fleeting victory. Competitive learning is the key to achieving mastery. It challenges you, encourages strategic thinking, and connects your actions to their consequences. This might seem counterintuitive, but it creates powerful learning experiences. Performance-based competition can be a potent tool, using points, recognition, and healthy competition to motivate you.

“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele