This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about the meaning of competition.

It's normal to be intimidated by competition or your competitors.   Competition is a measuring stick for comparison on a given day.  Competition has many contexts; athletic, business, contests to inspire action, and even simply just competition for attention.  Competition and comparison can be positive, but it can also be a slippery slope because while it can have positive benefits, it can also harm your confidence and cause anxiety without the right outlook.  I'll use athletic competition as an example in this podcast because it's what we are most familiar with.

All of us who have ever worn a timing chip, a number plate, or had our name on a team roster have felt the exhilaration, nerves, excitement, and even anxiety about our performance.  We look at start lists to see who else is there, we compare our preparation to others.  It's normal to have that tense feeling.  Even after racing for 15 years, I get both nervous and excited on race day.  Sometimes, I will even admit to dreading race day and wondering why I put myself in a situation to feel so uncomfortable.  That's how I can tell I'm super nervous about it.  Have you ever asked yourself why you are nervous?

Personally, and I'm sure some of you can relate as well, it's because I'm afraid of several factors.  One, I'm afraid I'll look stupid if I don't perform well relative to my competitors. I worry I won't have good legs that day. I worry I won't be good enough and what will other people think?  What will I think if I put in all this work, made sacrifices and I don't meet my expectations?  Some people's most daunting expectations are their own while other's are more nervous about external expectations.  Competition also has an extrinsic motivation component to it.  When you compete, you can "win" something. You win recognition, a prize, money, or a trophy. You could even win the respect of fellow competitors which is something we all want. Extrinsic motivation is tied to an external reward.  I think it's very important to look for your intrinsic motivation.  I think it's the key to longevity in a competitive environment because if you can tie your success, or feeling proud of your effort to something that is less about comparison and more about a different purpose in which you have more control, it can help relieve the pressure of needing to achieve a certain time or a certain place.  I think we do need to be ranked by our race time or a game score compared to others or it wouldn't be a competition, but if you make your goal to perform your best on the day, be consistent in your preparation, work on having a positive attitude even when it gets hard, or nail a technical section, it can broaden the measurables of what success meant to you on the day apart from just your race result.

Now what if you fear the actual people or the competitors?  It's something I've been working on for years, but I try to look at my competitors not as my enemies, but as people who will make me better too. I've seen peoples' names on a start lists and been intimidated thinking I'll never be able to beat them, but that's a self-limiting belief.  I've proven myself wrong.  It doesn't help to stare at start lists and guess what the outcome may be.  It's better to focus on your own strategy that plays to your strengths.  It's good when there are lots of strong people on the start list, not bad.  Some of my proudest performances haven't necessarily been from winning, but they've been circumstances where I raced my bike better than I ever thought I could, and that was a win

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.