Competitions - Harmful or Fun?

Earlier this year while on holidays with friends I had my first taste of geocaching....searching for “treasures” that other folks had hid along trails, in parks, even right downtown. There are caches hid all over the world and thousands of folks spend their time using some form of GPS to find them. I had first heard about geocaching from my children who used the GPS on their phones to go and find a few local ones in the town where they lived. I thought it would be fun but had no idea how to do it. Then on holidays my friends were given a handheld Garmin GPS and the fun began.

My tiniest geo cache find

Now my first week of being home I must say I became totally engrossed in heading out and finding as many as I could, mainly because my competitive nature had kicked in and I wanted to find more than my friends did. I was totally obsessed with it going out every single day for two to three hours at a time. However, my friends went out together - there were two of them and only one of me. I reached the point where I actually was angry at the fact of doing this alone and lost any sense of hope of finding more than they did. The joy of geocaching had disappeared because of my competitiveness and my anger. However, after talking it over I quickly got back on track and continued on and I continue to search for caches every weekend that I am free. The joy of it returned and it once again became fun.

Obsessed and Determined geocacher (could be me)

For over a year now I have been working out at a gym and wearing a device that monitors your activity. You wear it on your waist and get points for movement. These you can download into the gym’s site and see where you rank with others. Now at first it was interesting to see where I fit in with my friends and others at the gym. Over time though I used it to monitor my own activity and set my own goals. My friends didn’t always wear theirs so there really was no competition until “the challenge”. One of my friends challenged me with a prize to the winner. Well once again, within the first week I was angry over not having the time to get these points, and my friend felt we should end the competition. I however continued to compete and became obsessed with being out walking, running etc. It really was ridiculous and not much fun most of the time. Eventually I let go and prepared myself to lose. Once I did that the joy of exercise came back to me. However both of us have noticed how driven we are to get more points. I am doing way more exercise than I would have before. My body aches from climbing hills and running more than my knees want me to.

Hiking and more hiking = Points and more points

Competitions are they good or are they harmful? Are we all so competitive that we push ourselves beyond what we should do and take the fun out of something we usually love. It has been fun this month checking the points site and doing ridiculous things (like running around my livingroom) to stay in first place but when I look back at it I am not so sure it is physically healthy nor healthy for our friendship. I think it brings out the worst in my personality and has me doing more than my body wants to. Yet it has been great getting outdoors more and exercising and it has given us both some laughs. Between these two competitive outdoor adventures I have explored areas I never would have known about, seen new and beautiful  parts of creation and had such good times out in the woods.

Maybe entering in races, competing in community events is a good way to challenge oneself to reach new  levels. However I no longer believe that competitions between friends are ideal. I truly wish I wasn’t so competitive but it seems to be part of who I am. Am I still going to try and win the competition with my friend?  You bet I am...only because I have no self control (and I don’t think my friend does either  :)  Come this Friday one of us will be #1 and the other #2 but we will both be winners. We will have had new adventures, reached new personal goals and learned from the experience but most importantly had lots of laughs, it's a win, win for us all.