Bring It On! – Using Competition To Achieve Optimal Fitness
Some form of competition is needed to achieve really big things. Going from good to great is a matter of challenging current skills through competition with better athletes. Businesses get better (or go out of business) by competing with better businesses. Competition spurs us to achieve excellence. Coach Sonnon of the Circular Strength Training® system likes to point out the etymology of the word. It derives from the latin con and petire which in essence is to seek together. By entering into competition we seek excellence through our interaction with others. We push each other forward.
When faced with discomfort (physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) we tend to back off, unless we are driven by something bigger. In that moment when I feel like I am at or beyond my physical limit, the only thing that can pull me forward and help me eak out that last bit of effort is my focus on competing at my peak. Consider the Will Smith secret to success. If you get on the treadmill with him, you’ll get off first or he’ll die trying to stay on longer. That’s the power of competition.
It’s taboo nowadays to value competition. We teach kids that as long as they are having fun, nothing else matters. It seems that everyone gets to be right. Everyone gets to be a winner. All the time! Now, I am not saying that we should not encourage our kids to have fun. Learning and fun go hand in hand. But we should also be teaching them that there is a value in seeking to improve every time out. They should want to win, or at least do better than they did the last time. Losing should incite bad feelings and the desire to do better! And want to figure out how to improve. Those are valuable lessons that our politically correct dogma is trying to whitewash. I agree that competition is not about winning and losing. But it is about using winning and losing as a tool to grow and improve!!!
If you want to inch ever closer to your potential, you need to constantly slip past your comfort zone. That is a very hard thing to do on your own. Competition can spark growth and excellence. But systematized competition is not necessary. Sometimes something as simple as having a training partner who pushes you is, in itself, a form of competition. But something needs to be driving you forward and making you examine yourself when you don’t make the grade. If you are in the fitness dip, and need some extra motivation, start looking for a challenge to break through the barrier and achieve excellence.
