A few things I've learned about Competition: One, the people who say it's "not about competition," tend to be the most competitive. I don't know why this is, but it seems to hold a smidgeon of truth. When someone says this to me, what I hear the person saying is, "don't compete with me." The second thing I've learned about competition is that everyone is in one. That's right, we're all holding a competition of some sort, with someone. People will deny this, but think about it. Perhaps you're not competing with anyone else, but you could be competing with yourself.
I've found that I'm often my own biggest competitor. I want to do better than myself. I want to prove something to myself. I want to make sure the 'me' I'm fighting with doesn't get all the attention, win the arguments or cross the finish line faster than the other me—the one I'm really dedicated to in whatever moment I'm having. This sounds crazy, but I've had others tell me they feel the same. A lot of us are afraid of competition. I think it's because of losing. Nobody wants to lose. But when I look at competitions, such as sports competitions, there just aren't that many genuine losers. The Olympics for example. There aren't any losers. There are rankings, ok, but if you consider the bigger picture, just the fact that a person was ABLE to compete in the Olympics makes them a kind of winner. So in a way, only those who do choose to compete are the winners?