Positively Good Productions

Some people agonize from, the miserable, 

wretched, destructive, unpromising, ill-fated

crabs-in-a-barrel syndrome.

They don't want to see others succeed. When they 

see another ascending... they try to hold them down.

People who constantly compare themselves to 

others may develop awful feelings of 

inadequacy. 

When competition is motivated by a desire to 

get attention and validation from others, it’s 

ultimately coming from a place of insecurity,

defencelessness, self-consciousness, fear, 

timidity and self-doubt. 

Competition can get ugly, and we don’t want 

to fall into a viciously savage circle of 

self-loathing, reluctance, self-doubt, mousiness,

 inhibition, and skepticism because it seems 

impossible to beat our past successes.

 Unwholesome competition puts a warped and 

twisted degree of emphasis on the outcome, rather 

than valuing the process or the journey involved

 in getting there. And when the outcome becomes

 the sole focus, it can promote the idea that one has 

to do “Whatever it takes” in order to succeed. This 

kind of mentality can lead to all sorts of bad

decisions and unethical practices.

 It is a beautiful thing when we focus on beating

 our best... and becoming the very best version of 

ourselves. When we try to compete with others, 

we are actually following rules instead of 

creating our own game.

Let us not find ourselves moving towards 

someone else’s accomplishments instead of just 

moving forward in a direction that is ours to shape. 

When we compete with someone else, we let their 

values define our goals and the perception of our 

own performance. 

Those who get most bent out of shape about 

the success of others typically struggle with inner 

questions about their competence and suffer 

feelings of inadequacy and low self-worth when 

others press on to their higher calling. They waste

time holding another down... not even realizing 

that we stay down... together.

If you are trying to better yourself... you 

may find yourself in a similar situation.

People tend to be more emotionally invested in

 comparing themselves to family and friends 

more than to strangers.

Sharing our dreams with one who has another agenda

or may not have our best interest at heart could be 

disastrous. Too much information allows crabs to 

sabotage our efforts.

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.