So a friend of mine told me today that I am too competitive.
This is a problem.
I know that in the past, I’ve been very VERY competitive. And it’s something I’ve tried to tame. Apparently, I must not be doing a good job. This person is someone who knows me pretty well. So if she sees it, it’s probably there.
I think some competition is good. I don’t think I could be involved with a girl in a relationship who didn’t have some competitive spirit. I don’t mean competing financially or emotionally. But if I’m playing a game against my girl, I want her playing balls-out. Because I will be.
Competition has started to make me not want to bowl with C anymore. He’s very competitive. And now when we bowl it’s about who is beating whom. And of course, he usually wins, since he is a better bowler than I. He’s better at almost all games/sports than I, for that matter. And when he doesn’t win, he claims “oh, I wasn’t really trying anyway.” It’s as if he doesn’t want to play if he can’t be the winner. I don’t want to be that guy.
I think the reason my competitive nature is healthy is this – while a game or contest is going on, I am playing to win. Because that’s the purpose of playing. Otherwise we would play games like “The Ungame” where there are no winners. Never heard of “The Ungame”? That’s because it was a dumb game with no winners, so nobody played it.
Now, after the game/contest is over, if I lose, I generally feel that I don’t dwell on it. I will probably try to figure out WHY I lost, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good time.
What do you think?
m.