I’ve always told people that athletes have a competitiveness that us normal people just can’t comprehend.  Why do athletes take PED’s?  Why do athletes continue to play longer than they should?  Why do injured athletes do anything they can, including lying, to get back on the field?  There are several factors that could be answers to any of these questions, but competitiveness is one of the major factors.

A healthy competitive drive is a good thing

It’s what makes our country go.  Long after most of us are done playing sports, that competitive drive will forge our career in most cases.  Why do you want that promotion?  Is it because you want more money or you feel you are the best candidate.  Better than the other schmoes that are going after it.

If you own your own business, how will you react when a competing business opens up shop just down the street.  What will you do when you start losing business to them?  Or they start slashing their prices?  Will your competitiveness drive you to overcome those obstacles and still maintain your business?

I’ve learned to channel my competitive spirit.  I was never a sore loser, most of the time. Although there are times when it bugs the heck out of me, I can accept defeat.  How do you handle those defeats?  I got second place in my racquetball tournament.  It didn’t bother me.  I enjoyed it, but I’m already figuring out what I need to do to try and get first place.

That wasn’t always the case.

One time when I was in high school my classmates would play huge games of foursquare on the playground.  Here we were, seniors in high school, dominating the playground playing foursquare.  There would be cliques trying to dominate the top squares.  I penetrated the top squares, but eventually some buddies ganged up on me and knocked me out, going back to the last square.

They were giving me cr@p, laughing, and getting in my face.  So, I did the mature thing and took the racquetball, chucked it over the tennis courts, and walked away.  Not one of my finer moments, but I will say I usually didn’t act that way in real games.

Sometimes, I’d get all ticked off and curse, maybe a little too loud.  I had to stop that when my flag football games had kids around, namely my daughter.  You try to expect perfection out of yourself and when it doesn’t happen, you get so flipping mad.  I still do that, I just try not to use curse words and keep the decibels down.

There are worse negative effects of competitiveness than that though.

I’ve seen people make complete a$$es out of themselves and you wonder, is it because they need to control their competitiveness or are they just idiots.  At some point, you have to realize what you are doing and let things go.  In my case, I’m playing a flag football game where at the most I could win a t-shirt.  I want to win, but I’m not playing for the Super Bowl so I’m not going to act like an idiot or do other things (fighting) that is caused by hypercompetitive emotions.

The positives of competitiveness is that it can drive you to be successful.  Successful really in anything.  Did you not go as far in the tournament as you would have liked?  What do you need to do to go further next year?

Can you not beat out someone for a starting spot?  How bad do you want it?  Will you do everything in your power to put you in a position to be successful?

Nowadays, I try to channel my competitiveness into my business.  I want to have the best speed training program in Columbus, Ohio.  I want to have the best speed program that you can download on the internet.  I want my staff to deliver excellent service.

Most athletes will be humble when asked questions like “do you think you will win?”  Or, “should you be starting.”  In their hearts they are going, “HE!! yeah I should start.”

People ask me every so often, we can’t get to your facility do you know of any speed coaches you would recommend closer to us?  Honestly, I want to say, “No.  If you are comparing my program to a comparable one, I don’t think there is a comparison and you should figure out what it takes to get to me.”

I don’t say that.  I usually just say I don’t know because I don’t know anybody who does speed training in Columbus that is as good as me.  And if I recommend you to just any old speed coach and it doesn’t work out, then I might look bad for recommending them.  The only one I could see recommending people to go to would be Butch Reynolds.  Let’s be honest, the guy was the world record holder in the 400M.  He knows something about speed.

If channeled correctly, competitiveness can be a great weapon for an athlete.  Utilize it to drive you to be the best athlete that you can be.  You work hard when you are an athlete and it will carry over to your other aspects of life.