Competing Within
Have you ever considered where your competitive nature comes from, when it started and what you did to use it to improve yourself or to help others, or to make a difference in some way?
Competition we most often used in the context of facing an opponent in some way. It could be a person, an entity, a condition, a crisis or anything that comes along in life which challenges us.
From my earliest age I recall being competitive in everything I did. From jumping my bike over a homemade ramp with neighborhood friends, to running events at field days in elementary school. My dad used to say playing a board game with me as a young boy he knew I was playing to win and studied the game to beat him. It was just in my nature to compete at everything I did. We all have that competitive spirit inherently, but it is how we call on it or lean into it which can determine the level of success or setbacks we face in life. Competing is in its simplest term is to take part in something, but also to defeat or win. And to that point, society in general places far more emphasis on the winning part, than that of what can be gained by simply competing. Then there are times when winning is the only option we have.
Competing to Win
There is competing and then there is surviving. Competing to survive may make one think of a business which is struggling and needs a big win gained through competing. Then there is the much more personal example of competing to win in a health crisis. I had just such an experience and it wasn’t immediately obvious to me…in fact it took almost three years for me to come to the realization that what I was doing was competing not only to win, but to live.
It came upon me in an early morning, awakened from a deep sleep and as soon as my eyes opened the first word that came into my mind was competition. But why? As I laid there unable to go back to sleep my mind began to think back to that day when I was given a life-threatening medical diagnosis. I remember that as soon as those words were said to me, it was as clear as water, what my answer was…it was to win. It ended up being the toughest competition I ever faced, but I faced it. Until that moment as I laid there in the dark morning was when I realized I had competing for my life. I just had never thought about it in that context.
Competing Teaches
A competitive nature can and should be utilized in a productive and sustaining way, for not only for one’s personal benefit but for others as well. What I have learned through my journey is that competing to live is but piece of the equation. But also paying it forward to others to encourage them in facing a similar challenge to compete to win as well with my words and more importantly, my actions.