Positively Good Productions
Sowinig blessings and life lessons to encourage, refresh, and benefit our lives.
Some people suffer from the dreadful,
horrible, destructive, unpromising, doomed
crabs-in-a-barrel syndrome.
They don't want others to succeed. When
they notice another climbing, they rush
to restrain them.
Many people have an unhealthy desire
to win at any cost. They measure their
own value by comparing themselves to
others.
People who continuously compare themselves
to others may experience debilitating
emotions of inadequacy.
When rivalry is driven by a need for
attention and affirmation from others, it stems
from a place of insecurity, defenselessness,
self-consciousness, fear, timidity, and
self-doubt.
We don't want to fall into a ferociously cruel
spiral of self-loathing, fear, self-doubt,
mousiness, inhibition, and skepticism because
it seemed impossible to surpass our previous
triumphs.
When it comes to insulting and putting
people down, competition may become
even more unhealthy. It's one thing to be
driven by self-interest; it's quite another to
purposefully undermine the performance
of others.
Animosity, hatred, malice, and hostile
energy not only harms others, but also eats
away at the soul of the person parceling it out.
Unhealthy competition places a distorted
and twisted emphasis on the outcome rather
than on the process or journey involved in
getting there. When the outcome becomes
the only focus, it might foster the notion that
one must do "Whatever it takes" to achieve.
This mindset can lead to a variety of unwise
judgments and unethical activities.
When we focus on beating our best... and
become the best version of ourselves... it is
a lovely thing. When we compete with others,
we are essentially following rules rather than
making our own.
Let us not be drawn to someone else's
successes instead of moving forward in a
direction that is uniquely ours to shape.
When we compete against another person,
we allow their values to dictate our goals
and our perspective of our own
performance.
Those who are most concerned about the
success of others generally battle with inner
doubts about their own ability and experience
emotions of inadequacy and poor self-worth
as others pursue their greater calling. They
squander time holding each other down, not
recognizing that we all stay down together.
Crab mentality entails tearing down anyone
who has achieved or is likely to attain more
success than others. This behavior is named
after how crabs race to escape a boiling pot by
clambering on top of one another.
Crab mentality comes in and destroys other
crabs to the detriment of the entire community.
Put a group of crabs in a barrel... when one
approaches the edge of the barrel, nearing his
escape, the others will drag him back into the
barrel.
If you are striving to improve
yourself, you may find yourself
in a similar scenario.
For example, you truly want to attain a goal,
but every time you try to rise, there are a
few who masquerade themselves as your
friends or loved ones and will drag you back
down... and hold you down. The closer you
come to freedom... the more your attempts are
sabotaged.
Envy is a side effect of a lack of identity.
What is there to covet if one knows who they
are and is certain of their ascension?
In general, we are less concerned with the
success of others if we are attaining success
of our own.
People tend to be more emotionally invested in
comparing themselves to family and friends than
they are in comparing themselves to strangers.
Sharing our dreams with someone who has
a different agenda or who does not have our
best interests in mind might be harmful.
Crabs can undermine our efforts if we
provide them with too much information.
Often this is applied to people in an impoverished
community where one person is starting to get ahead.
The collective community becomes jealous or filled
with a sense of self-loathing, so they find a way to pull
that person back down to the community's level.
The crabs will pull down any crab
that starts to climb out of the barrel!
All of the struggling crabs could easily escape
from the barrel, but instead they relentlessly grab
and pull others down in the pot. They spend far too
much time and energy in a futile competition which
prevents any of them from escaping to freedom, and
in the process they are collectively subjected to
suffocation and death.
When people engage in this kind of behavior...
it can pretty much guarantee our communal demise.
Sometimes even family members will become
jealous and try to derail or sidetrack our efforts
by attempting to destroy our spirit.
Regardless of the obstacles that come against us...
we can make it.
We must love our enemies, and bless the ones
who curse us, and do what is beautiful to the ones
who hate us, and pray for those who persecute and
speak evil about us.
Those closest to us may be
crabs in disguise.
Those closest to you may not be as happy with your
progress as you would like to think they are.
Just as a flower does not belittle or compete with the
flower next to it, but rather it follows the movement
of the sun so it can grow and bloom. We should also
be doing the same. It is vitally important to make sure
that we focus on growing and blooming, and staying
in our own lane-- fully committed to doing the work
we were created to do.
People who have a crab mentality
are always trying to bring their opponent down.
Those who make every attempt to suppress,
oppress, and discourage others are being derailed
and/or sidetracked from achieving their true calling.
They are making, absolutely, no progress for themselves.
They exhaust themselves with the full-time duty of holding
others down. They're obsessed with the idea that someone
else is going to steal their thunder...
not good.
You know that you don't belong in a barrel.
Keep climbing out of the barrel regardless of all
the crab claws that may be snapping at you.
Trust...
there are kindred souls outside of the bucket
who will take pleasure in pulling you up
and over to freedom.
When we allow or assist one to climb out of the barrel,
we can give them the ability to reach back in
and pull others out, too.
Most people want to be successful by earning
money and fame. Some have achieved almost
everything in life, but still find themselves
feeling voids, emptiness and unfulfillment. Some
lives are full of external reward, but their lives lack
internal reward.
Life is a journey. What is the fun reaching a
destination if you do not enjoy journey at all.
We all have at least one thing that we just love
doing. It may be sewing or playing a sport.
It may be dancing, singing, cooking, decorating,
raising a family, teaching, preaching, working on cars,
helping people, etc. Maybe you draw and write
just because you love to do it. We do these things even
if they do not bring us any income/external rewards.
We should never stop doing these things just because
it will not get us anywhere professionally.
Let us embrace what we do. Keep doing what
makes our hearts smile, as inner joy is a
tremendous reward.
When we help others, our lives seem to have
meaning and purpose. When we give our hearts
in kindness and love, we get the riches of the
universe, which is far more rewarding than material
possessions. When we are generous with others, our
lives feel fruitful and rich with possibility. When we
can inspire others to trust God, believe in the
impossible, take the leap of faith, and become the
best version of themselves-- we experience,
internally, the missing link-- joy-- that inner
fulfillment. Our dream or our goal should be
something that inspires us within. Then life will be
an amazing and fulfilling journey!
Let us do what we were designed to do, and
let God's grace do what it does.
May we always, build others up, bear with
the blunders of those who are spiritually
weak--and not think of ourselves more highly
than we ought.
May we keep God in the forefront and
commit our way to Him.
carolecgood@carolecgood.com
www.carolecgood.com
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