Life is Full of Competition

Life is full of competition.

Every day it surrounds us.  At work.  At school.  In our social life.  Throughout the world.   

It's all about competition. 

Where would we be medically and technologically without competition?
Everyone striving to be the best and the brightest. 
The prettiest, the most adored, and the list goes on and on. 

Do you thrive on competition?  Or do you find yourself not at your best? 
Do you even compete? 

I think it's important to compete.  Don't coast through your life.  You have to play the game, at least to some degree.  You have to fight for what you want.  Maybe you won't be the best or the brightest or the prettiest in the crowd, but you'll be the best damn person you can be. 

You have to compete to reach your full potential. 
At least, I think so. 
Without competition it's easy to coast. 
It's easy just to maintain the status quo.    

Now I'm not saying walk around like a weight lifter juiced up on steroids.  You don't have to flex your muscles all the time to show how bad ass you are. 

But be BAD ASS.     

Is competition all about winning? 
Or is it about the mistakes we make along the way?
I prefer the latter.

"If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere.  The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win." -John W. Holt Jr.

Right now my life is full of competition and some stress.  Do they go hand in hand?  The more competition, the more we stress ourselves out trying to compete?  Trying to keep up?

I feel stressed when I think about my peace corps application.

When will they get back to me? 

People that are leaving in September have received invitations and I'm nominated for an August program and have yet to even receive medical clearance.

It feels like a competition, but it's out of my hands now.  There's nothing at this point I can do to hurry the process along. 

But now I'm afraid I will leave in August.  August seems to be fast approaching and I want to have enough time to plan, to think, to prepare. 

And at the same time I'm afraid I won't leave in August.  That there will be even more waiting.  That I'll be invited to a program that I'm not as excited about.  Or that maybe I won't receive an invitation at all.

But it makes me feel not good enough.  Like those that have received invitations are better than me, more qualified applicants..something. 

I know. 
Crazy talk.

So anyways, my advice is to compete.  To be bad ass.  Release the stress.