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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Competition: George Sheehan and Heroic Life
I enjoyed a bit of feedback from the last essay on competition. Noting from the "scorecard" section that I race a lot, he wanted to know how I deal with the downside, including but not limited to anxieties common to competition. After all, nobody can win all the time. How do you deal with defeat? And with other aspects of competition, such as worries about making mistakes, not being good enough, getting hurt and so on? Winning has much to recommend it, but there's little room at the top. Does competition really fit with REAL wellness? How about that focus on happiness, reason and quality of life? Also, what about the others involved in the competitions? If I win, does that not by definition mean others lose? If I have more of something (e.g., trophies, medals, ribbons and the adoration of the crowds, for instance!), do not the others have to do with less of such things? Is that fair, or nice or a situation we want to encourage? Isn't competition a zero sum game? How can it be healthy to focus on "beating" everyone else?
My, my, it would be nice to live in an ideal world where everyone gets the same of everything and all are equal. Not!
But, the writer has a point, many, in fact, that ought to be considered and decided - on an individual basis. We are not all alike, and what floats one boat will sink another.
The questions noted are competition issues with which most of us have had to deal. We are all shaped by competitions of varied kinds over the years. In the first part of life if not continuing as adults, we often did not get to choose the competitions in which we found ourselves. The competitions were thrust upon us! Think of the early years of school, and competitions for grades, honors and so on. Our attitudes toward competition affected some aspects of our personalities and values. It should not surprise us people react to competition very differently one from another. How clear are you about your own attitudes toward competition?
What exactly IS competition? The dictionary (Webster's 9th attempt to get it right) offer this definition: "The active demand by two or more organisms for some environmental resource in short supply." It could be a yellow jersey, an oval office in Washington, the vote of a Congressperson, finding an affordable home in a desirable area, winning Pulitzer Prizes for best REAL wellness essays—whatever. For me, competitions most often take the form of athletic pursuits, as in weekend age group rivalries (as you can observe in the scoreboard section). If the visitor's question had been, "Is competition a good thing for you, Don,?" the answer would be easy: "Yes, very much so."
The reason competition is such a positive experience for me is that I try and usually succeed in making competitive events a "no lose" proposition. More important, with a little bit of mental rehearsal and physical practice, you can do the same. Here's why.
If I win, I'm happy. Naturally. If not, however, I can "win" anyway, but in different ways. It's all how you choose to think of competition and the winning/losing part. If I can put this desire to creatively interpret "winning" successfully into my brain and emotions, it works well. This thinking guarantees a "winning" experience of one kind or another. The trick to enjoying competition is to have more than one way to win. For instance, if I am not the first across the line, which has occurred more often than I like this year (though second is not so bad if the times are fast enough), I make a point not to mope or get down and out about it. More often than not, Lance Armstrong finishes in the middle of the peloton (the pack of riders), and everyone knows how often Babe Ruth used to strike out. There are other gains from participating in the game, such as the thrill of the race, the camaraderie and the excitement of it all. I focus on the fact that I have worked hard (athletes always push beyond the pale in a race in a manner not possible in training) and thus gain added fitness. If I have done my best, and I almost always give nothing less, there is no basis for despair or disappointment at not being first.
An inspirational 27-minute film about fitness and competition called "Coping With Life on the Run" was produced and narrated by the late running guru George Sheehan in 1977. It was a big hit—I loved it and found much that was inspirational, including the soundtrack. The film depicts runners of all ages and physical abilities excelling in competitions in their own fashion, and getting emotionally high on a feeling of having performed in outstanding ways. One scene shows a man in a wheelchair coming through the finish line, doing wheelies. Another participant in the run is on a bridge during the race, alone, because the rest of the competitors have long since crossed the finish line. As he nears the camera, it is apparent that he is running with one leg and a prosthetic limb. To this athlete, the competition has great meaning. His goal is to finish, which he does to triumphant exhilaration. Most of the other competitors, particularly in the middle and back of the pack, seem to experience similar thrills and connectedness. While they don't win in a formal way, they win in terms of personal goals and individual pleasures. This is exemplary of what competition offers, at its best. It motivates people to excel. It promotes self-esteem! It gives meaning. I can almost hear Ingersoll describing the passengers on a train, all doomed, having a grand time, despite knowing the fate that awaits them all—"I tell you, we have got a good deal of pluck."
I could go on about the benefits of competition but I think you get the idea. The fears associated with competition, the bad feelings that it creates for some, are more related to the way they respond to it before, during and/or especially after the fact.
Competition is not always a good thing for everyone. Some should avoid it, or reform their attitudes about it. It is best if not viewed as a big deal with permanent winners and losers. A healthy perspective is simply to be part of something special, a stage worthy of your time and a venue for your talent. Make winning inevitable by the way you choose to view the process. Make it a game broad enough to enable you to win your division. When people ask what division I'm in, I say, "The master male category for people over six feet three inches and 170 pounds who are right-handed with blue eyes, host a wellness website, live in Florida and have a strange sense of humor." If you get yourself in the right division, you can win, too—and then you will LOVE competition. As Ashleigh Brilliant observed, "To be the best, be the only one in your group."
Sheehan wrote that the purist form of competition comes from attempting to be "the best YOU you can be. Competition is the road to excellence...Each one of us must be a hero. We are here to lead a heroic life...the heroic act, the courageous act, is its own reward." (Personal Best, Rodale, Emmaus, PA. 1989, pp. 7 and 8.)
All the best. Be well.
Note: An earlier version of his essay first appeared here on September 6, 2001, then entitled, "A Self-Managing Perspective on Competition."
Domain: physicalSubdomain: exercise and fitness
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