As a kid my sport of choice was swimming.  If you ask someone who isn’t a swimmer they’ll tell you swimming is an individual sport.  For me though, it was a sport that crossed both the individual contributor and team barriers.  You train in a squad where you respect the pecking order and norms of the team. But whether you win or lose a race comes down to your performance on the day as an individual.

There were two types of competitions – ranked races and time busters.

Ranked races are what you’d expect.  You competed against other people in heats and if you placed, won a ribbon.

The other type of competition, the “time buster”, was my favourite.  In a time buster you competed against yourself.  If your race time was faster than the time you submitted with your competition entry fee, you got a ribbon.  If you were slower, you got nothing, except the drive to work harder in your next race.

I got more ribbons from time-buster competitions (which is why they were my favourite!)  It was easier competing against myself than other people.  Whether I “won” or not was solely within my control because I was responsible for how I performed on the day.

There’ve been times over the years when I’ve lost sight of how I measure up against myself, focusing instead on competing against others.  Whether it be for a job, recognition, a pay rise etc… Worse have been the times when I’ve stagnated from not having goals or become complacent and sat on the sidelines while others progressed with their careers.

These days my focus is on the time buster, not the ranked race. I have goals, aspirations, and the drive to work hard to make them a reality. I’m happiest competing against myself because I know if I put in the effort I can improve on where I’m at at any given point in time.  If the “me” six months from now has improved on the “me” from today, I think I deserve a ribbon.

Photo: Fish and chips on the beach at Devonport.