Competition Freaks Essay Example for Free

Competition Freaks Essay According to Dr. Phil, Everybody likes to be a winner, but some people are competition freaks who have to be first, be the best or win at everything they do. This overly competitive nature oftentimes causes tension in their personal relationships. Love and competition are oil and water, they do not mix, Dr. Phil warns. He offers the following advice for competitive people who want to overcome their need to compete, and learn to relax and enjoy what they have. Being competitive in our academic, working and personal lives can be good for achieving success and moving into the ranks of glory and glamour. Competitive attitudes can help you to feel energized, able to take on challenging tasks and ready to achieve many things in life. However, competitive behavior that is not considerate of your well-being or well balanced in its application can take its toll, leading to self destruction and perhaps ostracizing the very people you care about the most. REFERENCE: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/510 http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Competitive-in-a-Non-Destructive-Way 1. SELFISHNESS B. EFFECTS OF COMPETING 1. NEGATIVE EFFECT 1.1 SELF- HATRED Another risk of burying our competitive feelings is that we may turn them around and use them to feel bad about ourselves. A straightforward competitive thought like, â€Å"I hate that he is so smart and always says the right thing,† may turn into an attack toward our selves like, â€Å"You are so stupid. You never know what to say. He is so much more engaging than you.†Ã‚  When we turn against our competitive feelings, we turn against ourselves. We feel ashamed of who we are and what we want. Instead of seeking to emulate the people we admire, we simply tear ourselves down in relation to them. With so many negative manifestations of suppressing our direct competitive feelings, how can we face them more honestly and make sure to use them in healthy ways? First of all, we have to remember that feeling competitive is not about letting these emotions take over or ruminating in negative thoughts. It’s about accepting our naturally occurring competitive responses, feeling them fully and moving on. We can accept that we have these feelings a lot of the time. We can even have fun with them, letting ourselves have the nastiest thought possible, then letting that thought go. Doing this as an exercise can feel clean, healthy and even refreshing. As illustrated by the above examples, when we suppress our competitive feelings, they have a way of seeping into and influencing our behavior. Yet, each time we acknowledge that we have these thoughts, we can consciously choose how we want to act. We can be much more proactive in becoming the best version of ourselves, both accepting ourselves and evolving, as the motivated (and competitive) individuals that we inherently are. 1.2 JEALOUSY/BEING ENVY Competitive feelings can be full of jealousy. Allowing ourselves to have competitive thoughts will not leave us falling victim to unstoppable fits of envy or suspicion. When we hold back our healthy and natural competitive feelings, we strengthen the negative parts of those feelings –jealousy included. Instead of building a case against someone, we can face the reality of our feelings and adopt a healthier attitude. For example, a guy I know recently revealed to me a thought process he went through at a party with his girlfriend. He noticed that she was happily chatting with other people, including a few men throughout the night. At first he thought, â€Å"She is totally flirting with my friend. Why does she light up around him? Is she more into him than me? I should just dump her before she makes a fool out of me.† At a certain point, he realized that what he was really feeling was competitive. He wanted her to respond to him the way she was responding to other people at the party. His thinking quickly changed to, â€Å"I love when she is fun like this. I want to share that with her.† Instead of listening to  the voice in his head that told him to pull away and act cold to her, he joined her and engaged in joking around with her. By being lighthearted and fun himself, she was naturally drawn to him, and they were both able to feel closer and happier with each other. If he’d acted on his jealous insecurities, rather than admitting he felt competitive, he would have achieved just the opposite. 1.3 SELF-DENIAL One of the worst results of denying our competitive feelings is that it can cause us to reject what we really want in life. Because feelings of desire or jealousy make us uncomfortable, we may pretend that we don’t want whatever we once longed for anymore. If someone we had a crush on goes out with someone else or if a job we interviewed for falls through, we can easily turn against ourselves and become self-denying. Instead of thinking, â€Å"I really wanted that, and I’m furious that I didn’t get it,† we might think, â€Å"I don’t even care. I never really wanted that. I’m not going to put myself out there to embarrass myself again.† When we engage in this pattern, we become increasingly passive. Rather than going after what we desire, we avoid it, all in the interest of denying our â€Å"unacceptable† competitive feelings. REFERENCE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/compassion-matters/201309/the-benefits-feeling-competitive 2. POSSITIVE EFFECT 2.1 MAKES YOU PERSEVERE When you look at someone ahead of you and you do whatever it takes to catch up to them†¦that is the essence of perseverance. You don’t give up until you are at the top. Without competition, we would have no reason to persevere. We wouldn’t know our limits and how far we can stretch them. The rewards of perseverance are priceless and to experience such rewards, you need a reason, and competition is that reason. 2.2 HELPS ASSESS YOUR STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSES Following up from my previous point, what you do notice is what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. With competition, you have a way to measure how well or how poorly you are doing. Knowing what you are good at and what you are not is extremely important, because success is all about accentuating your strengths and hiding your weaknesses. How well you accomplish this determines how far you go. REFERENCE: http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/05/7-positives-of-competition/

Use of Three Literary Techniques in Things Fall Apart Essay -- Essays

In his work Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells a story describing the decay and destruction of ancient African tradition caused by the invasion of white culture. His tone in the book seems to side and sympathize with the Africans and their religion. Interestingly enough, though, he uses biblical allusion, as well as onomatopoeia and symbolism to bring the book to life and captivate the reader. The following will describe how he uses these. Even though it appears that he sides with Africans and their cultural beliefs, Achebe uses things from outside their religion, such as biblical allusions. When the missionaries appear it says, â€Å"they were all sons of God. And [they] told them about this new God† (Achebe 126). It is interesting to note that Achebe capitalizes the â€Å"g† in God, which is proper especially if one claims to be a Christian. Another allusion could be interpreted when the locusts cover the land. It is phrased, â€Å"then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world, and the sun seemed hidden behind a thick cloud† (49). There were so many, that this â€Å"cloud† could easily repre...

Ethics, innovation and entrepreneurship Essay

With reference to one or two organization that you have studied, discuss the influence of ethics and innovation on the role of entrepreneurship (entrepreneur) and intrapreneurship (intrapreneur). Conceptual approaches play a vital role in influencing the role of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in an organization. Innovation, which is one of the concepts, is the ability to think anew by developing new services or products. It is synonymous with risk taking as defined in the entrepreneurial behavior. Organizations that create innovative products take on the greatest risk because they create new markets. It is the act to carve a new niche in it, as deemed by most entrepreneurs. Ethics, on the other hand is the basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. Organizations that mobilize this conduct concerned with decisions and what and how to do it. For example, ethical considerations in the role of entrepreneurship and intrepreneurship are revolved around the ways of an organization approaches its customers by instilling good values throughout the conduct, and also through consideration in the branding of the products or services, based on morality as it portrays the image of the organization. These two concepts influence the survival of an organization in the modern world to cater the society’s demands. One of the organizations that best fit these criterions is IKEA. IKEA has introduced various ethical conducts throughout the century. One of its most significance considerations is that IKEA introduced IWAY. It is an ethic code that had been introduced by the founder of the organization as a code of conduct between the organization and its suppliers since the year 2000. It encompasses guidelines concerning working conditions, prevention of child labour, the environment and responsible forestry management. This ethical conduct is to ensure that the suppliers won’t go overboard although things may seem inevitable as most suppliers don’t put that much of concern regarding the issues and most organizations seek for reduced cost. However, IKEA prioritizes morality, and dare to be venturesome, in starting their business with ofits from the quality. This ethical conducts inhibit bribery and anything related to the impropriety andanother organization as it is to ensure that their products are top-notch and can initiate a much greater pr results in creating quality products for the customers, hence providing customers the best of what they should opt for from an organization. It will  promote trust in business, and enhance in the growth of likely more organizations alike to adhere to the same code of conduct resulting a better lifestyle in a society. People benefits from getting to use quality products, while organization and suppliers gain profits as the business go viral from the trust embedded by the customers. However, this code of conduct, to a certain extent, won’t be able to stand a chance against the long run of the business. From time to time, organizations should revise on how they conduct their business as policies change overtime in order to adapt to the current demand of the world. IWAY can’t stay appr opriate for organizations as benefits and importance would be totally different years after. Hence suppliers will end up breaking the guidelines, resulting in contract breaches causing damages and loss to both organizations. Code of conduct, is about refinement in order to get it sustainably carried out, yielding its finest outcomes. In the innovative aspect, IKEA had been coming up with the concept of sustaining the price by introducing the ‘do-it-yourselves’ concept. Lowest price is the basis of IKEA’s concept. IKEA identify new customer needs for furniture from not just from those who can afford but also among the young and less wealthy. So the founder had came out with the idea of designing furniture in kit form, leaving the customer to put them together by themselves hence, reduce the cost of assembly. The furniture is put in flat-cardboard boxes, so that customers can access to the self-service warehouse without using any third-parties. This results in almost 80% of reduced cost for transportation. This innovation, as deemed to be potently reducing most of the cost, comes from having the customers engage in the idea of ‘do-it-yourselves’. IKEA’s prices have been 30% below any other traditional furniture manufacturers. Its contemporary and innovative avant garde idea had garnered both the attention of customers and suppliers. This results in impactful effects on the society as more classes of people would be able to possess high quality products and furniture. IKEA’s ‘do-it-yourselves’ furniture not just exhibit the exquisite design and sophisticated image from the company but indicates their stand in providing quality products in affordable price. This will entirely improve the social standard of a society and cater the demand of the customers, to own furniture that suits their social living within the current globalization. However, this strategy is not foolproof. There have  been numbers of debates on how customers comment that some I KEA’s products are complicated to assemble and in further action, require the need of an expert hence require more expenses. This will get us back to square one where buyers would have to pay for assembling the products. The idea of ‘do-it-yourselves’ is vividly attracting attention of customers and suppliers however, it would be better if proper guidelines and further proposal is planned for this strategy to work. Entrepreneurs are gambling to the fact that they’re selling unfinished products to the customers hoping profits in return, however this won’t be likely to occur without proper planning and detailed reviews. As discussed in the passage above, IKEA is been putting priorities to both the suppliers and also the customers. Attention on the suppliers was to ensure that the raw materials used reach the standard of quality to yield the best products. Customers were given priorities in the aspect of wanting them to buy the products, by taking care their needs, and demands. Exclusion of any of these two societies would leave a profound impact to IKEA itself. But in this aspect, it would be better if slight inclination of priorities were given to the suppliers instead of the customers. A great enforcement on how the expensive raw materials should have been taken into count by IKEA, is essential and should undergo ethical inspection, so that it gratifies the satisfaction of both the supplier and customers. Any organization should be aware that, if the materials are not off good quality, this will affect the selling process, as well as will hinder the profits gained. It is for us to realize that even though entrepreneurship is about approaching the customers need, venturing to their demands, it is highly recommended that we should look back and reflect that without having proper supplies and the right suppliers, none of that would happen. To deduce, both the concepts, innovation and ethics influence the role of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in an organization. Without the actualization of these two concepts, IKEA won’t be able to achieve such influences in the modern world of furnishing.

The Carbon Chemistry and Crystal Structure of Diamonds

The word diamond is derived from the Greek word adamao, meaning I tame or I subdue or the related word adamas, which means hardest steel or hardest substance. Everyone knows diamonds are hard and beautiful, but did you know a diamond could be the oldest material you might own? While the rock in which diamonds are found may be 50 to 1,600 million years old, the diamonds themselves are approximately 3.3 billion years old. This discrepancy comes from the fact that the volcanic magma that solidifies into rock, where diamonds are found did not create them, but only transported the diamonds from the Earths mantle to the surface. Diamonds also may form under the high pressures and temperatures at the site of meteorite impacts. The diamonds formed during an impact may be relatively young, but some meteorites contain stardust — debris from the death of a star — which may include diamond crystals. One such meteorite is known to contain tiny diamonds over 5 billion years old. These diamonds are older than our solar system. Start with Carbon Understanding the chemistry of a diamond requires a basic knowledge of the element carbon. A neutral carbon atom has six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus, balanced by six electrons. The electron shell configuration of carbon is 1s22s22p2. Carbon has a valence of ​four since four electrons can be accepted to fill the 2p orbital. Diamond is made up of repeating units of carbon atoms joined to four other carbon atoms via the strongest chemical linkage, covalent bonds. Each carbon atom is in a rigid tetrahedral network where it is equidistant from its neighboring carbon atoms. The structural unit of diamond consists of eight atoms, fundamentally arranged in a cube. This network is very stable and rigid, which is why diamonds are so very hard and have a high melting point. Virtually all carbon on Earth comes from the stars. Studying the isotopic ratio of the carbon in a diamond makes it possible to trace the history of the carbon. For example, at the earths surface, the ratio of isotopes carbon-12 and carbon-13 is slightly different from that of stardust. Also, certain biological processes actively sort carbon isotopes according to mass, so the isotopic ratio of carbon that has been in living things is different from that of the Earth or the stars. Therefore, it is known that the carbon for most natural diamonds comes most recently from the mantle, but the carbon for a few diamonds is the recycled carbon of microorganisms, formed into diamonds by the earths crust via plate tectonics. Some minute diamonds that are generated by meteorites are from carbon available at the site of impact; some diamond crystals within meteorites are still fresh from the stars. Crystal Structure The crystal structure of a diamond is a face-centered cubic or FCC lattice. Each carbon atom joins four other carbon atoms in regular tetrahedrons (triangular prisms). Based on the cubic form and its highly symmetrical arrangement of atoms, diamond crystals can develop into several different shapes, known as crystal habits. The most common crystal habit is the eight-sided octahedron or diamond shape. Diamond crystals can also form cubes, dodecahedra, and combinations of these shapes. Except for two shape classes, these structures are manifestations of the cubic crystal system. One exception is the flat form called a macle, which is really a composite crystal, and the other exception is the class of etched crystals, which have rounded surfaces and may have elongated shapes. Real diamond crystals dont have completely smooth faces but may have raised or indented triangular growths called trigons. Diamonds have perfect cleavage in four different directions, meaning a diamond will separat e neatly along these directions rather than break in a jagged manner. The lines of cleavage result from the diamond crystal having fewer chemical bonds along the plane of its octahedral face than in other directions. Diamond cutters take advantage of lines of cleavage to facet gemstones. Graphite is only a few electron volts more stable than diamond, but the activation barrier for conversion requires almost as much energy as destroying the entire lattice and rebuilding it. Therefore, once the diamond is formed, it will not reconvert back to graphite because the barrier is too high. Diamonds are said to be metastable since they are kinetically rather than thermodynamically stable. Under the high pressure and temperature conditions needed to form a diamond, its form is actually more stable than graphite, and so over millions of years, carbonaceous deposits may slowly crystallize into diamonds.