Compete For Success

Whenever I write these sort of "personal growth" articles, I try to pick something prevalent in me that makes my life richer or makes me feel great.

For example, I'd never write a column titled "How to avoid sweets" because I'm the WORST person at resisting the temptation of sugar! Similarly, I'd also never write something like "Save the Chicken Population!" because God only knows how many poor chickens have sacrificed their lives to nourish yours truly.

I AM however very competitive by nature.

I seriously view SO many daily activities as some kind of competition and try to win! What am I talking about, you ask? Well, here's one example:

When I go to the grocery store, I always shop with the mind set that my cart is going to be healthier than both the person in front of me, and the person behind me in the checkout line. I secretly, in my head, observe what the people around me are buying and tabulate the healthiness. If I win (which I almost always do) I do an imaginary fist pump!

I have this kind of competitive mind set for all sorts of things. One reason I love sports so much, is that it allows you to be openly competitive. A lot of times, I'll play something that I don't have much experience at (ie. pool, golf, soccer etc.). However, I usually end up doing ok despite my lack of skill. I want to win so badly, that my mental focus is much more intense than anybody else.

When I was in Junior high and high school, I was really Chubby. I still loved sports though, and tennis was my first love and the sport that I was best at. I think its pretty obvious that I didn't exactly have blinding speed around the court. EVERYBODY was faster than me. I did however manage to win quite a few tournaments. Why? Because I wanted to win more than everyone else. I had to focus much more intensely and be twice as competitive to compensate for my lack of twinkle toes.

For this reason though, I hate bowling. Maybe hate is a strong word, but no matter how hard I concentrate, and how bad I want to win, I suck at bowling!!! But I digress.

I am a firm believer that having a competitive mentality can make one's life better and more successful in many ways.

One of the most obvious avenues were competitiveness pays off, is in career growth. If you think about businesses, the ones that succeed are the ones who are better than the rest, and best the competition. Look at Bill Gates. He is so competitive, that other companies are filing lawsuits because he's effectively eliminating all competition!!! I don't know about you, but I'd say he's moderately successful in his career.

Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras. These are athletes who had so much will to win, they became icons. There are athletes out there that are more athletic and just as talented as Michael Jordan, but his intense competitiveness is what made him GREAT.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be the best at everything! I know I definitely do, and that's a strong motivating factor in my life.

As a disclaimer though, there is a definite line between being a great competitor, and being overly competitive. We all know the "over-competer." He's the sore loser, the steroid taker, the exam cheater, and the whiner. The key to maximizing your success is to get as competitive as possible without submitting to any of these annoying behavior traits.

I hate to lose, but I consider myself a pretty good loser. Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often! :)

In fact, today's post is just another contribution on the way to making this website the BEST BLOG EVER!

So what am I saying in a nutshell? Try to be the best and don't stop competing because good things are bound to happen!