Competitive by Nature

Competition is a fact of life, but is it a good thing? From the very moment we’re born we are competing for something… on some level… somewhere. Competition is never ending so we can either be intimidated by it or embrace it, but the one thing we can’t do is ignore it.

I never got to play a competitive sport or even a team sport like Little League when I was a child growing up. But I do remember the feeling of competition in school. The competition to get good grades, to be the first in line at the cafeteria, to fit in with the “in crowd”, and so much more. Most of the time I wasn’t comfortable with the whole concept of competition, but I accepted it like it was a necessary evil. Like I said, you can’t ignore it.

Later in life I had the chance to play competitive baseball on a Men’s Senior Baseball League team. I discovered that I loved being part of a team that was striving to achieve a goal. The feeling you get when you lose sucks, but the feeling of triumphant victory you get when you and your teammates play well together is an adrenalin rush that is hard to find anywhere else. Bonding with teammates, practicing together, traveling to out of town tournaments together, all of it add up to magic moments that will last a lifetime.

I’m not saying that competition is always fun and always easy, it’s not. I have vivid memories of my legs shaking and my stomach churning when it was my turn to bat in the final moments of a championship ball game. Sometimes I was so scared of failing, and so scared of letting my teammates down, that I wanted to quit the team and stay home. But overcoming that fear was in a way, its own kind of triumphant victory. Never quit on your team and never quit on yourself... and you’ll discover one of the most important life lessons you can ever learn.

Nowadays, I’m not able to play competitive baseball anymore due to a balky back. But I discovered that I can still play golf, so I’ve gotten serious about it and I’m striving (competing!) to get to a single digit handicap. I discovered that golf is extremely challenging in its own way and although most of the time you’re competing against yourself, it is fun once in a while to challenge a buddy to a friendly match. Recently, one of my closest friends challenged me to a hotly contested “match play” event and it really got my competitive juices flowing. I fought hard to win, but ultimately lost the match. However, what my friend said to me after closing me out actually made me feel like I was still a winner. He said, “When I compete against other people, I’m always hoping for them to blow it. But when I compete against you, I can't bring myself to root against you.” Competition is something we cannot ignore, but true friendship is something we can always embrace!

I am too positive to be doubtful, 

too optimistic to be fearful, 

and too determined to be defeated.

~ Jack Nicklaus