I like the circle of concern versus circle of control metaphor from the 7 Habits book. However, it must be applied with some subtlety. Being aware of your competition is not the same as stressing over your competition. As the author mentions, you must separate the portions of this knowledge that you can act on, and the ones you cannot. Nine times out of ten, it comes back to doing a better job at <i>your</i> company. If your competition consistently does a better job than you, then you're likely to lose, but stressing over it won't change the outcome.