Winning is everything

I have a strange view of healthy competition, a view that not many people seem to hold.

Beating someone isn't enough.

One can win the race but, in my eyes, that doesn't make you a winner, no matter how loudly the crowd cheers or how many autographs and pats on the back are received. What I think is that in most cases, the way people look at winning is fundamentally flawed as they focus on what is behind them, not what is in front.

You might say: There is nothing in front of them, they won, but you'd be wrong. It is very possible that those behind them are the winners. Sure, they are slower, weaker and less talented but, if they pushed themselves to the absolute limits, they have conquered what few in this world have, themselves.

The whole understanding of competition needs review in my thinking, as it doesn't drive for the best of an individual, it drives for the best in comparison to others. That is not the best, it is good enough. But, good enough for what? To get a sponsorship deal, a few votes, some coin?

For me healthy competition is an exploration of possibility, an investigation of trials to see how good one can be, and that requires a team. A group that supports by pushing and pulling, experimenting and failing together. It requires integrity within each member to fulfill their duty, to do what they can, to overcome themselves.

This is what true winning is, overcoming the self to be one's best even if that best is nowhere near the front of the pack. The champions in this world are not necessarily at the front, they are the ones clawing with all their might at the back. The ones that no matter the conditions, no matter the pain they may experience or the hooks that pull them backward, they continue doing their best and, even if they fall, they know that they had nothing left to give.

Fill a world with people like that and impossible truly is nothing for what that means is, all that exists is possibility, and that always lays in front, never behind. If there is still possibility, there is still work to be done. If you have the power to close that gap yet do not take that opportunity, you have lost. Tomorrow, that might change though, you might win.

When I was young my parents never taught me to compete and even though I played many sports, they rarely even watched my play. For me, winning was for me but it was always tempered, always reserved, always careful not to push others too hard. I never wanted them to feel bad. I did them a disservice, I did myself a disservice.

Not doing my best didn't push them to do their best but, that is something they would have to take upon their shoulders of responsibility. Me not doing my best is something I have to shoulder. It spilled into other areas of my life, most would call it coasting. If one is coasting, even at the front of the pack, that is not winning.

So now, I take the view, winning is everything. It has to be this way as it is the only method to reach potential, the only way to be the best is to overcome all that isn't it. This winning I speak of doesn't need you though, it doesn't need a trophy, or money or upvotes, it doesn't need consensus.

I fail at this each day. Every single day there are times I hold back, times I do not push myself as far as I could, as far as I should. Everyday my mind and body throws up hurdles to overcome, challenges to face and even though I fall often, I am getting there, and learning a lot along the way.

There is no winning in this game, no chance to ever complete the round successfully as time is too short and possibility too endless.

But, perhaps this is the point of the game, the bitter sweet flavour of life. At that final hurdle you can look back and see how far you have come, how far you have carried the torch. You can look forward and see all the possibility that vanishes into the distance and know you will not get past that last wall, you will never see what is to come.

At that last moment, that is all you can be, there is nothing more you can do, that is your everything. But, the torch you have carried will continue on.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]