This past Saturday we competed in a local competition with some great people from our gym CPMFITness. I have competed in the past and it has not been enjoyable or fun. This was the first competition I had participated in, that people were encouraging, laughing, and enjoying their time there!
Good Competition vs. Bad Competition
Something very good or something very bad can happen to you…
You can become motivated beyond what you ever thought possible.
–OR–
You can fall into the bermunda triangle of COMPARING yourself to others, their scores and begin to
question your training, success you have had thus far and began to self sabotage yourself.
Competition is a way to provide context to your training and gives you purpose behind everything you have been working for in the gym day in and day out.
Good Competition
Competition can bring out the best in you. I fully believe that you can not recreate the environment, intensity and your highest level of performance during the heat of this great competition. Participating will put you in the game and can result in raising the bar for yourself. You will operate at a much higher level because everyone else is operating at a much higher level. And by you pushing yourself you in turn will push others around you. It is infectious!
Competition can you show you the light to your potential. You can be a part of something much bigger than yourself. You can see how people really not that much different from you can put up extraordinary numbers.
Competition shows you exactly where you are at today. The mantra I hear often is “prove your fitness”. Everything you have done up to this point will result in exactly how you ‘should’ perform in the games. This can be very empowering and motivating. All of the workouts, strength work, running, mobility you have done will show up no matter what workout is. So if you are not satisfied where you end up with your scores and goals, consider this is your BIG WAKE UP CALL! The kind of wake up call that can be a life changing and transform you into a more motivated, focused and dedicated athlete. Not to mention an all around better person:-)
Bad Competition
It is very easy to NOT check your ego at the door. With the high-end focus and atmosphere of competition. Do not let yourself fall into the trap of COMPARING yourself to others performances. This kind of comparing is you actually judging yourself against people who you know very little about. You have no idea what type of work these people put into to produce their results. You don’t know what kind of athletic background they have. You can’t compare yourself to someone who is a former competitive gymnast, or has been weightlifting for 10 years, or played college sports, and you just started 6 months ago?!?!
You are exactly where you are supposed to be. All of you efforts you have done, all of your training prior to competition, your entire fitness/sports history has brought you exactly where you stand today. And the same goes with the people you can’t help but compare yourself too. Be proud of yourself. Your progress. Your results. The potential you have.
My hope is you use the competition as a measuring stick for yourself. I hope you use the positive energy to catapult your mental and emotional inspiration to a level you never thought possible for yourself.
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Fit Chic