Winning a Race

I have heard people say that life is a journey. If that is the case it is about going from point A to point B. It could also meant deciding where we want to go and work hard in ensuring we arrive safely. Pushing this point further, some may realize that there are others who are trying to do the same. From a mindset that resources is finite, being at point B as soon as possible could be the next goal. Now we have a race.

How do we win races?

There could be two possible ways, we push ourselves hard so that we could move faster or we could hope that our competitor are not fast enough and therefore would end up second best. Some may event "throw few spanners" towards others so that they are pre-occupied in solving issues which we created for them and don't move fast enough.

If I were to choose between the two options, I would regard those who win on their own merit as better than the other group. To me, winning on one own strength is more respectable than winning based on competitors' weaknesses. I am not sure whether this is shared by others. There are people who consider winning as the most important thing, by hook or by crook as what they would say.

Arriving faster than others does not on its own makes us winners. What if we somehow ended at point C, which was not the our aim. Which this could be a sure loss situation for many some have a solution to it. They just declare that point C is the same as point B and hence, they arrive at the right spot and declare themselves winners. 

Some may run in circles as they are not sure where they are heading. As the saying goes, when you do not know where you are heading, any way will lead you there. Off course we have the option of defining our destination when we are somewhere, as earlier alluded.

Some don't have problem in finding shortcuts to reach the destination ahead of others. If we are driving a car, this could mean by not stopping at traffic lights, going against the traffic and many more "intelligent" options. As long as they are not caught, they would be happy. This could be tempting as who defines success is certainly ourselves. If our upbringing tells us that it does not matter how we achieve what we want then stealing and cheating would be ok as long as we are not caught. If we have too much, doing charity with the ill gotten wealth would also make us recognized. Is this not what Robin Hood did?

Given that people are saying that the world is getting more competitive (i.e. we are in a competition) then winning and losing matters. Is it really so, we have to ask our moral compass, if we have one. Otherwise, we could really get sucked into the competition and may fall into the trap of winning matters more than how we won.

Off course we have another group of people who believe winning is their right irrespective of their performance. They have this delusion because this is the only way for them to achieve something and they were not tuned to compete from small. Well, I am not sure whether the world is willing to stop moving just to allow these people to catch up.

So a race could be won in many ways and it is up to us to determine what is the right way. This calls for guidance. I pray that we are shown the right path and arrive there in the right way.