Today’s blog relates to competitiveness and ego. One can make the argument that we are all competitive. Early man had to deal with such elements as food, safety, and cohabiting with a member of the opposite sex for survival. But certainly there are obvious differences when it comes to the degree of competitiveness in each of us. Alfred Adler, a psychiatrist from Vienna, talked about the importance of childhood experiences that predispose an influence personality development. He believed that 1. Children with inferiority's, 2. Spoiled children, and 3. Neglected children begin life with a weakness for which they compensate. In other words, the ego or the self becomes personalized, subjective, and makes the experiences meaningful and unique to that person.Today’s run, with Tony, is a tapering for the San Lorenzo River Trail run Sunday. When you look up a description on the computer for the run you see people waist deep crossing the San Lorenzo River. An e-mail from the race director mentioned that this year the river is high. So, this trail run is going to be wet and difficult. The 50 K. records for this trail run are over five hours. That time for a 50 K. is long. Sunday is going to be a lot of fun and I can hardly wait. Steve S an endurance and ride and tie friend is going to be our host for the weekend.
Tony and I ran an easy 5 mile loop or so. In tapering, Tony mentioned that last week he ran all the hills in his attempt to beat me home. I ran up or should I say walked up Maine bar (a steep, rocky, ruddy, muddy, difficult trail) and he did a longer run across American Canyon. He ran at least 3 miles longer than I did. His mission was to beat me home at all costs. He didn’t care how much pain or discomfort he experienced since he was focused. Was he disappointed he didn’t beat me, yes? Did it matter to him that he had to run further? Didn’t matter how tired he got, his goal remained the same and consistent to his unique personality.Tony also told me that under no conditions would he ever tell me that he’s tired during one of our runs. He knows or believes that I would take advantage of him and beat him during the run. Could that ever happen? Can I beat him running? So far, I haven’t found the right distance to race and to whip him. Will I ever find that right distance? I don’t know, but that is my mission which is unique to my personality. Here we have two young men competing in their own way against each other. I believe that Alfred Adler is correct and that the competitiveness that we both experience is related to experiences in our childhood. What do you think is the correct explanation? How do you account for our competitiveness? Let me know what you think.
In my book “It Has Nothing to Do with Age” one major topic that you will learn about is a psychological basis for understanding the underlying motivation of the competitors. I find understanding motivation to be extremely interesting. I hope you do also.
1 comments:
Competitiveness is fascinating! Yesterday while running I came upon 3 women who were mountain biking up the same hill that I was running. I've never met those three women in my life, and yet I was determined to beat them to the top of the hill. I don't know why we have that drive, but I know that endurance horses have it too. My most competitive horse will speed up and push himself when he sees a horse in front of him and he won't relent until he's left them behind. He's even done it with mountain bikes! I don't have an explanation, but I do know that it's not exclusive to humans.
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