Should you win at all costs?

Absolutely YES.

And, definitely NO.

Okay, slightly confusing, let me tell you a little story…

A little over 18 months ago I started the running program “Couch to 5K“, it takes a non-runner through a training programme to be able to run 5K.

I can now run 5K quite comfortably in 30 minutes and am indeed pushing harder to improve my time.

One of the things I wanted to do when I began this training was to join the Park Run movement, to join hundreds of other people locally all running a 5K on a Saturday morning.

Due to Covid restrictions Park Run is not up and running yet but I’m planning in my head how I can win.

I’m competitive you see, if I do something I need to compete. And I need to win at all costs.

I’m planning on winning Park Run. Oh yes, you bet.

At least I was until I saw the fastest runner had run it in 14 min. Jesus, that’s a sprint!

There is absolutely no way I’m going to win, at least not for a considerable amount of time, and possibly taking 20 years off my age!

So what do I do, give up, just because I’m competitive and stand no chance of winning?

Absolutely not, I compete with myself instead.

I change the focus from competing with other people, to competing with myself. As I’m running I watch my pace on my Smart watch, checking to make sure I’m at least staying within a 6 min/kilometre pace, ideally running closer to a 5 min/kilometre pace.

Each time my pace slows, I push myself to compete with the last kilometre.

So I’m still competing. I’m still winning at all costs… so here’s the thing, it’s not actually winning at all costs that’s the problem… It’s who we decide to compete with.

Should we win at all costs competing with other people?

Or, is it kinder to ourselves to win at all costs by competing with OURSELVES?

And who knows, if I keep competing with myself, winning at all costs to reduce my time to a 25 mins 5K slowly edging towards 20 minutes, then pushing a bit more to reduce the time even more, I may actually achieve my 16 min 5K after all!

So who do you decide to compete with?

Who makes up your rules?

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