Compete with Yourself 與自己競爭

There is a famous saying in sports games： “Second place is just the first loser.” Humans are born to compete with one another. Although the competitive spirit may be as natural as breathing air， it does not always lead to human developing strongly. On the contrary， left unmanaged， it can create great unhappiness for ourselves and others.

Avoiding competition can be a way of preventing unhappiness. But there is another method to solve this problem and we don’t need to dispense with our competitive nature completely： Instead of always going for gold， shoot for the bronze.

Although second place may be the first loser， third place can be the real winner—at least when it comes to happiness and longevity. This conclusion comes from research carried out on Olympic athletes. In a study， researchers discovered that the bronze winners appeared happier on average than the silver medalists after their events.

Another study looked at the average longevity of all three medalist groups. It found that the athletes whose best performance was silver lived to 72. Gold medalists beat this by a full four years. But the first prize in longevity went to the bronze medalists， who lived to 78.

體育比賽中有一句名言：“第二名是第一個(gè)失敗者。”人與人之間的競爭與生俱來。盡管競爭精神可能像呼吸空氣一樣自然，但它并不總是有力地推動(dòng)人類發(fā)展。相反，如果不加以控制，它可能會(huì)給自己和他人帶來痛苦。

避免競爭就可以避免痛苦，但還有一種方法可以解決這個(gè)問題，無需我們完全摒棄競爭的天性： 與其一味追求金牌，不如追求銅牌。

雖然第二名可能是第一個(gè)失敗者，但第三名可能是真正的贏家——至少在幸福感和長壽方面是這樣。這一結(jié)論來自對(duì)奧運(yùn)會(huì)運(yùn)動(dòng)員的研究。在一項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，平均而言，銅牌獲得者在賽后比銀牌獲得者看起來更快樂。

另一項(xiàng)研究考察了三類獎(jiǎng)牌獲得者的平均壽命。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，那些取得的最好成績是銀牌的運(yùn)動(dòng)員，活到了72歲。金牌得主的壽命比這整整多了四年，活到了76歲。但長壽方面的第一名是銅牌獲得者，他們活到了78歲。

The study had an explanation for this difference： “Disappointing competition results may negatively affect health.” In other words， silver medalists see themselves as the first loser because they look up to the top step and compare themselves only with the gold medalists， while the bronze winners compare themselves with all the others who never got the medals at all.

This hypothesis is based on a large body of studies showing the difference between upward and downward social comparison. When we compare ourselves with those who have more money， power， or achievements， we often feel like， well， losers.

That is why people so commonly feel bad about themselves after checking out the lives of others on social media who only post their victories and celebrations. However， downward comparison makes people feel better about themselves and， thus， happier.

One of the problems with most competition against others is that it is likely to lower the intrinsic motivation， and thus enjoyment， that people get from their activities. Researchers found that competing against oneself was often more fun. Trying to improve your own past performance provides a sense not of “winning” but of progress. And the only person to whom you will have to compare yourself is you.

這項(xiàng)研究對(duì)這種差異做出了一個(gè)解釋：“令人失望的比賽結(jié)果可能會(huì)對(duì)健康產(chǎn)生負(fù)面影響。”換句話說，銀牌獲得者認(rèn)為自己是第一個(gè)失敗者，這是因?yàn)樗麄冄鐾罡吲_(tái)階，只把自己與金牌獲得者比較，而銅牌獲得者則把自己與其他沒有獲得獎(jiǎng)牌的人比較。

這一假設(shè)基于大量研究，這些研究顯示了向上和向下的社會(huì)比較之間的差異。當(dāng)我們把自己與那些更有錢、更有權(quán)力或更有成就的人進(jìn)行比較時(shí)，我們往往會(huì)覺得自己是失敗者。

這就是為什么人們?cè)谏缃幻襟w上看到別人發(fā)布取得的勝利和慶祝活動(dòng)后，常常會(huì)覺得自己很差勁。然而，向下比較會(huì)讓人自我感覺更好，從而更快樂。

與他人競爭的一大問題是，它很可能會(huì)降低人們參與某活動(dòng)的內(nèi)在動(dòng)機(jī)，從而削弱在活動(dòng)中獲得的樂趣。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，與自己競爭往往更有趣。努力提高自己過去的成績，給人的感覺不是“獲勝”，而是進(jìn)步。因此，你唯一需要與之比較的人就是你自己。

Word Bank

dispense with摒棄；不再需要

I think we can dispense with the formalities.

hypothesis /ha?'p?θ?s?s/ n. 假說，假設(shè)

motivation /'m??t?'ve??n/ n. 動(dòng)機(jī); 動(dòng)力

He’s intelligent enough but he lacks motivation.