Passion vs. Competition

I read this post today on The Pioneer Woman. Go read it or you will have no idea what the heck I'm talking about. It's titled "Giovanni".

Thanks for coming back. It's easy to get sucked into her blog and never come out again.

Passion is a very strong feeling or a great love or enthusiasm, but you knew that already.
Competition is all about winning or being the best, but you knew that too.

Giovanni is passionate about soccer. His passion has an entire town excited about the sport. I'm sure he's competitive, passionate people usually are to a certain degree. But their competition is usually with themselves, to be the best they can be at what they love.

I believe that passion inspires people. Competition causes animosity, someone has to win, ergo, someone has to lose. In this day and age people rarely learn from losing. They get angry or they make excuses as to why they lost.

When someone is passionate about something it's about sharing it with others, not winning or losing.

You'll notice that Giovanni yells while coaching. But amazingly it inspires the girls to play harder. It doesn't upset them or make them feel bad. It's all about the passion. If he was just worried about winning or losing it their reactions would be different. Kids all over town wouldn't be signing up to play soccer. They wouldn't be focused on what he's saying or giving it their all.

Often I have people tell me you have to be competitive to get any where in this society today. I disagree. For one thing, I'm not competitive and I'm quite happy where I'm at in my life. But even more, competition is all about beating the next person to where you want to be. I don't think you need to do that to be successful. You need to be passionate about what you are doing. How many of you are passionate about anything in your life? If you're passionate you get where you want to go without having to drag others down to do it. And the rewards are so much sweeter. It brings you joy and it isn't a burden.

This doesn't just apply to individuals, it applies to society as a whole. Americans slid from being passionate to competitive. By crossing that line it has changed from the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few to every man for himself.

There have been flashes of passion showing up here and there recently and I'm hoping that other people are infected and start to inspire others.

When you find what you are passionate about you're life becomes full. Passion gives you purpose. So I want my kids to find something that they are passionate about. When they do their life will open up in front of them.