Healthy Competition

I like a good healthy dose of competition. It challenges me to work hard, stretch my limits in order demolish, destroy, decimate, and decapitate my opponent. OK, maybe not decapitate, I just kinda threw that one in ‘cause I was on a roll with the “d” words and it is a pretty cool sounding word (more on cool sounding words later, btw).

Anyway, what brought this idea to mind was the fact that one of my friends, who shall remain nameless (Benny) is trying to get to 100 followers on her (Benny’s) blog before I do. I of course wanna win and show her (Benny) who’s the boss (it was never really Angela, maybe Mona if it wasn’t Tony but who really cares, I watched it for Sam). If you didn’t catch my reference, you’re lame.

She (Benny) only started the blog in part because mine inspired her (pronoun refers to Benny still) to do so. But really, that is what competition is really about among friends, inspiring each other to excel (that was gushy, but wait). Yeah, I wanna win, but not at the expense, detriment or decapitation of some one else (Benny cause she kinda needs her head). Be aggressive, be be aggressive; strive to win, but don’t gloat in victory, allow a loss to be an opportunity for growth those you defeat. I’m not referring to war necessarily, but the principle is the same: fight to defend freedom and protect lives, but don’t gloat over the death of someone, even if their death was a just one.

Bullies (not Benny) thrive on tearing others down to build themselves up. Sometimes we tend to live like bullies, thinking that in order to win, someone else must lose, but really in life that is not the case. If we stopped being selfish for 20 seconds we would realize that when someone succeeds (at something good) everyone benefits. If my friend (Benny) gets to a 100 followers before I do, no fair. But I don’t “lose” in the big picture, I just have to come back and beat her (Benny) to 200.

What healthy competition does for us: it challenges us to become better. I could strive to regularly hear the words “man, you’re really good, you beat me again.” But I think a better goal would be to hear the words “dude, you pushed me to be better that I was before, maybe next time you’ll beat me.” (think about that last line for a minute re-read it too)

Stop being a bully and seriously, if you really didn’t get the reference earlier: lame, just lame.

P.S. I still intend to beat my nameless friend (Benny) to 100 followers.