Toxic Competitive Environment
5 facts that can impact your happiness
This is the third article in a series where I explore why we compare ourselves to others and share five key facts that can impact your happiness, emotions, thoughts, and daily lives.
In general, an unhealthy environment is created when the rules are not clear, or the outcomes (results) are not based on your competencies but on behaviors that the evaluator appreciates. An evaluator could be a teacher, an examiner, your boss, a conductor, or even your parents.
But how can I tell if I’m in a toxic environment?
🙁 Example of unhealthy competitive environment
A teacher favoring flattery from students who are not good workers may create an unhealthy competitive environment.
In this case you know that your evaluation will not be based on your competences but in how much you please the teacher.
You may start to compare yourself with your peers and maybe think to change your behavior to have easier life at school. Maybe this will get you results in the short term, but it is never a great choice to make.
☹️ Example of unhealthy competition that can affect your personality
Another example is when someone starts to behave not well towards you, maybe creating an atmosphere of tough and uncompromising competition.
In this case you may be humiliated or disrespected in a way that you do not understand the cause.
Some people, when facing this kind of situation, feel guilty and think that the problem is in them. They begin to compare their actions looking for acceptance and can often fall into traps and be manipulated. If you find yourself in a similar situation, seek help.
After some cases like this you start to see the pattern.
Someone rude or flattering may be more successful than you in this kind of environment. You compare your behavior, and you notice that maybe you are a delicate person, or you are not assertive enough to deal with difficult people. Maybe someone different than you have bigger achievements.
To survive the pressure of the situation it is possible that you start to imitate the behave of someone successful and perhaps you start to lose your identity.
You change who you are only to be accepted and have results. What is worse—you start to be element of unhealthy atmosphere and maybe propagate it.
To reduce the impact of an unhealthy competitive environment the simplest solution is to leave those places or avoid people that create the bad atmosphere.
If your case is more severe, do a great act of love for yourself: seek help ❤️
In my next article, I’ll share more key facts that can impact your happiness when comparing yourself to others. Subscribe to this newsletter so you don’t miss any updates!
See you next week!