Competitiveness

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Are you in any way competitive? Or not at all?

I've always had a biy of competitiveness in me from an early age on. Nothing too extreme, but I always did enjoy to test my abilities against my classmates when I was in school. I thought it was a lot of fun to do that.

Nowadays, however, I've found that -the way I handle competition/competitiveness now- some of it ties into my fear of failure. When I'm following some sort of class (like a language course), I find that I do best when I'm competing woth my classmates (and especially when I'm somewhere in the 'upper echelon' of performance). I think that, for me, it's also a way of making up for my insecurity and lack of self-confidence in other areas. I've recently found myself forced to choose the alternative of studying at home because my language course didn't have enough applicants this year and had to be discontinued. I miss the competition a LOT, but I'm now kind of 'going up against myself', if that makes sense, and it's working out well, so far.

The same partially goes for my old, old special interest in wildlife... While it's mostly a relaxing 'hobby' mixed with a desire to learn more about flora and fauna, it's recently resurfaced after I thought I lost the interest altogether for a long time, and I find that when I go among other nature lovers, there is a definite element of wanting to flex my brain muscle and see how the extent of my knowledge compares to anyone else. And that also helps drive the desire to learn more.

Anyone else have anything about how you view competitiveness/competition?

I'm close to not being competitive at all. Where there is a competition, there will be losers. That's my way of thinking. I certainly don't like to be one of the losers myself but also don't like the idea itself of there being any losers. So I find competitions rather stressful. I avoid them at all costs. I tend to want to avoid even games etc, too, because someone will have to be the loser. I think I developed this way of thinking as I grew up as a "defective" person who seems to completely lack certain abilities that others naturally have. I know the pain of being a loser too well.

Having said that, I admit that I do feel good when I have performed well in something such as some school subjects etc, although that good feeling is accompanied by the negative feeling/thinking I mentioned above.

When it comes to my special interests then I can be extremely competitive, for myself competitiveness is an all or nothing thing and if I don't think I have a chance to be the best or couldn't care less if I was then I'm not competitive at all. This is perhaps what contributed to my lopsided grades in school as if I could not get reasonably 80% or better I just aimed for 51% or better. I have a really hard time joining in any neighbourhood sporting games because I just don't care who wins.

I can be this way at times. Especially at Mario Party.

I'm more cooperative than competitive. A bit lazy without a bigger carrot on the stick than bragging rights, perhaps?

I am quite competitive when playing games – be it computer games (e.g. Words with Friends), Board Games (e.g., Scrabble, Master Mind, Risk) and Card Games. I like to win. When young, I was equally competitive when playing outdoor games (e.g. volleyball, tennis). Though, I was terrible (and almost always lost).

I'm very competitive. Why would someone like losing? I for one, don't like losing. But I am a gracious loser. I do believe in congratulating the better person or team. I also like fair competition, I don't like cheating and I hate when others cheat.

I'm not competitive at all. I tend to s#ck compared to my peers with most things & always have due to Aspergers, dyslexia, low vision, essential tremors amongst other things . I'm not in to most things others are either. I also like sticking to routines & am somewhat picky about how I do things. I much rather go my own way doing my own things my way than worrying about what others are doing & how good they're doing & who will finish 1st.

I just so happen to be competitive to a fault. While I'm not the sort of person to rub it in when I win...my biggest flaw is probably being a very poor loser. I don't necessarily love to win, I just can't stand to lose.

Case in point: one day, I was playing Call of Duty on my laptop. I wasn't having a particularly good match, so somewhere around my eighth death, I punched my laptop's screen and broke the LCD. From then on, I had to hook it up to an external monitor to continue using.

I still have that problem when I play League of Legends, although I went from abusing my hardware to throwing my hat at the wall every so often. Most days are better than that, though. Being angry enough to throw things is a (mercifully) rare occurrence.

I never quite outgrew that competitive little fart who lives inside my head. I try to be humble in victory, and gracious in defeat, but that second part is reeeeeealy difficult for me.

Nice replies, you guys! Interesting to see how there are so many different attitudes with regard to this.