I love good healthy competition.
To be clear I am not talking about the “off the cuff” competition… beat your neighbour at a card game one time. That competition really means nothing in the grand scheme of life.
I’m talking about the rise that happens during competition. It’s the setting goals, working towards better skills, and rising to the top of the pack.
I love that game.
Rising to the top of the pack doesn’t mean dominating over others.
Dominating is stealing someone else’s power in order to perceive yourself as powerful. It’s dirty and it’s cheating, and it’s not productive.
I’ve noticed some people don’t see competition this way. They think losing means they aren’t worthy and they take it personally.
Others might say they play for fun – but I’ve noticed that they usually say that when they don’t want to do what it takes to win.
“Playing for fun” when you’re competing is simply an excuse you generate before you even get to the competition.
That’s perfectly ok as long as you are honest about it.
Maybe it’s a one time game, or maybe you don’t care. Then by all means, play for fun. Games are great entertainment.
But it’s worth your time to find ways to engage in healthy competition.
Because it’s really fun to be the best.
It’s fun to see how far you’ve come.
Its fun to master the skills it takes to get there.
It’s fun to take something that was really hard and make it easy.
It’s fun to understand something most people don’t.
It’s fun to get a little better and a little better and a little better all of the time.
It’s fun to see your work pay off.
It’s fun to be excellent.
It’s fun to watch it all come together.
It’s fun to see what you’re capable of.
It’s fun to win.
And it’s fun to rise to the occasion.
It doesn’t have to happen everywhere in your life – and probably it would take the fun out of life if you “played to win” all of the time.
But it’s fun to play to win in at least one area.
If you aren’t, I encourage you to try.