Well, does it?
Does Competition bring out the best in you?
Does it make your Compassionate Chord ring out its best?
Just how Competitive are you?
I can’t play golf or bowl. It’s not that I don’t know how or that I haven’t, it’s just that I WILL NOT golf or bowl, because it brings out all Beast and nil to nary Beauty.
I mean that in all of its viciousness.
My best time EVER for running a marathon was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. 1983 on a cool 45 degree rainy day. I ran it in 2:50.26 seconds.
I finished 286 out of 9987 runners that day. I didn’t even get to the starting line because of that vast crowd almost until six minutes AFTER the race began. I should be proud. Honored. Bragging about it….
The qualifying time to go to the Boston Marathon that year was 2 hours and fifty minutes. I missed it by 26 seconds. That averages out to 6 minute 29 second mile for 26.2 miles and I still needed to be a second faster per mile. I MISSED IT!
I swear. I never felt winded that day. My legs never hurt. I never hit The Wall. But I failed.
I NEEDED TO BE JUST ONE SECOND PER MILE FASTER…and I wasn’t.
Yes, I could have contested the race saying I wasn’t able to even reach the start line for 6 minutes…but in my heart, even if granted the allowance, I WOULD KNOW I WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH…and there’s been the dance of competition I’ve haggled with all of my life.
I compete with my self more fiercely than any one else. I don’t need a foe…I AM FOE to myself. I am constantly challenging myself to do more, be better, faster, more efficient, More, MOre, MORe, MORE,
M O R E!
And I never, ever settle. Never give in. Always looking for the next battle, challenge, competition, game.
What competitor’s song bounces within you? Does it’s notes haunt or taunt you? Are your striving to be better…even more than yesterday?
I have found that as destructive and sometimes as devastatingly disappointing this could be, it has taken me to new, higher levels when it comes to my Compassionate Ways.
Can I be more giving? Can I Care more? Can I listen more empathically? Can I be more accepting? Forgiving? Nurturing? Sharing? Loving?
When I compete with myself, DAILY, on these feats of the heart…can others gain, be better? Can I?
It’s then that these vicious musicians, duel madly within me, trying to OUT SOUND and gain Center Stage…but if the notes all work together for the good…this magnificent Symphony beautifully unfolds in a most magnificent way.
…hands get clapped, toes get tapped, faces wear smiles and the Music of the Soul bursts forth and OHHHH, how that pleases the Maestro…but NEVER ENOUGH! There’s more symphonies to be created and perfomred!
And on THAT NOTE…it’s time to begin again.
Buckle up!
Leave a Reply