Don't aim for becoming "number one"

〜what should we really go after?〜

Today I would like to talk about how people may appear to be striving to become "number one" in their field, but it may be untrue.

Let's think about professional athletes, for example.
Do you think they are working hard to become "number one"?

You may say, yes, of course they are!

Then, ask yourself following two questions:

Question #1: Suppose you have power to make the abilities of everyone else in the world inferior to yours. Would you use the power?

Question #2: Suppose you can choose from environments where everyone else underperforms you, and where everyone else outperforms you. Which one would you like to live in?

I'm quite sure that any professionals will never think of using such power and choosing the former environment, despite how much they appear to be working so hard to become"number one".

If your goal is truly to become "number one", it means that you wouldn't hesitate using the power, and choose the former environment.
However, what the professionals are really going after is the "ideal self", and not the status of being "number one" in comparison with others.

Then, What Should We Go After?

My answer is quite simple.

  1. Have a general idea of what you think is ideal.
  2. Completely soak yourself in what your are doing now.
  3. Sometimes check if you are approaching the general image of the "ideal self".
    3)' If you are not, change the thing you are soaking yourself in.

Being "number one" is just a scale.
It's just like a scale for measuring your weight.

What is the purpose of using a scale?
It's not that we want to know how much we weigh.
We want to know if our diet or the amount of exercise has been appropriate so that we can plan for the next.

Why do we want to lose or gain weight?
Weighing certain kilograms is not what we are aiming for.
We do it to make ourselves more appealing, or to keep ourselves healthy, for example.

In other words, the reason we care about the "rank" is not because we want to become "number one", but because we can use it as a milestone for planning what you should do next.

What we should go after is to enter the state of completely immersing ourselves in what we are doing, and to sometimes check if your direction we are heading by immersing ourselves in something is correct.
I think that's all we need to do.

Yoshiharu Habu (Professional Shogi Player)
"I've been doing all the way along is to completely focusing on each game I'm in."
"I am in a world where only thing I need to do is to get better, rather than doing things like trying to know how my rivals play. I think it's the way it should be, or the path every professional should take."

Kei Nishikori (Professional Tennis Player)
"Just do the best you can do, without thinking about going up or down in the rank."

For Those of You Who Chose "to Use Power" and Former Environment

To tell you the truth, I understand how you feel.

You may think how wonderful the world would be if everyone else on the earth is inferior to you, and you are always number one in everything.
If the world was like that, nobody would make fun of you, or you never need to feel inferior to anyone.

Even if you are this kind of person, however, you are not actually striving to become "number one" either.
What you are aiming for is a world where you never have to get hurt, and where you can satisfy the desire to control everyone else.

It's not that you really want to be "number one".
It's just the way I myself also used to misunderstand.


If you agree with it, send it to a friend or share it on SNS!

Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."


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Comments

1. Kunle Omoshola
[2020/07/13 15:16:51 JST(UTC+09:00)]

Thank you for your expose, to bultress your point, striving to be number one will always lead to unfulfillment. If all what one yarns for is to be number one, after becoming one, you loose interest and you begin to be unfulfilled.

2. Fully Hatter
[2020/07/13 16:20:10 JST(UTC+09:00)]

> Kunle Omoshola
Thanks for your supplement.
Roger Federer (Professional Tennis Player) said the same thing, also.
He said that what is most difficult to archive is not becoming number one, but keeping it.

3. Godless 1
[2020/08/04 20:15:54 JST(UTC+09:00)]

homo sapiens' "will to one" seems ontologically self-evident.
in any power hierarchy, we observe the same: finance, business, politics, sports, etc.
however, to see that the oneness one can embody in particular is itself a "derivative",
that is a particular and thus finite, for adapted for a purpose, "reduction" of oneness-as-such -
one can aim for particular oneness in one's own life,
under the conscious governance of universal oneness.

(I'm using Aristotle's lingo of juxtaposing 'particular' and 'universal')

mathematical minds might prefer:
"you are a defined function,
defined by the determination of the mimetic patterns surrounding you,
plus a variable representing the randomness factor,
but your source is infinity."

4. Fully Hatter
[2020/08/06 17:35:14 JST(UTC+09:00)]

> Godless 1
What an interesting interpretation!
Is "particular" the "aim for becoming number one" on my page and "universal" for the "what really should aim for"?

I personally think that people are not mathematical functions.
I believe that we have a "will" that goes beyond any input or randomness factor.
With that "will", I think we can derive an answer that goes beyond functional output.

5. Godless 1
[2020/08/07 21:43:27 JST(UTC+09:00)]

I agree with your concern that mathematics is not re-presentative of ultimate human nature.
Sometimes, mathematical concepts do help, however, to illustrate exactly that.

Hmm, I think what I meant is that you should indeed aim for being number one,
while being conscious that even if you were, say,
the most powerful person in the world or the most attractive person in the world,
there will always be a number one above you: God -
or the idea of God.

I think in our day and age, people have become too concerned about themselves:
their ranking in society, on social media platforms, on the Forbes list, etc.
However, time will do all of us in.
So, why no aim to be the number one particular representative of that one universal oneness giving rise to all of us individually in the first place?

But, we don't like "the idea of God" ver much, of course.
Too old school :)

6. Fully Hatter
[2020/08/07 22:00:46 JST(UTC+09:00)]

> Godless 1
I completely agree with your opinion.
If God is included, it should make sense to aim for being number one because the answers to my two questions on this page will be the exact opposite.

By the way, I like "the idea of God".
In the world of physics, we always feel God's existence.
I think God is the root of our aesthetic sense.

7. Godless 1
[2020/08/08 21:21:34 JST(UTC+09:00)]

I take the "idea of God" from Plato.
His understanding of the human mind is just so beautiful.
He says we hold these representations in our minds, which are like paintings in a museum.
One painting represents justice, another one love, yet another one God, etc.
But, ultimately, they always point beyond the image, where all ideas of justice, love or God are 1.
So, on the one hand, we're all different, for our minds contain different collections of reality, but on the other hand, we are united by a higher dimension -
beyond re-presentation.

You're right: aesthetic visual experiences are divinely beautiful. Like music - the other half of reality?

8. Fully Hatter
[2020/08/09 07:23:54 JST(UTC+09:00)]

> Godless 1
Thank you for introducing Plato and its detailed explanation.

If you are interested, please read other pages.

Comment here, and Fully Hatter will reply with affection.


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