ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Commencing operation . . .

Overview

In a dog eat dog world, it seems competition is everywhere you go. Walk down any shopping aisle, and you will see stores attempting to outdo each other. While having too much of a competitive stride can lead to trouble, a healthy dose of competitive spirit likely does the soul plenty of good.

I have competed in Karate tournaments for around eight years now and have more recently added kickboxing into the mix. I want to share three benefits I have gained through my experiences in competing around the world.

Drive

I believe the greatest of feats were not made possible without a competitive drive of some nature. Think of the relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. A rivalry existed between each of these pairs, spurring the other onward to even greater heights.

Sometimes you need that kind of firepower to triumph over an adversary and get you over the brick wall that stands in your way. A rivalry does not need to be born from bad blood either – friendly rivalries can exist among friendships where people support and spur each other onward. My advice is to find such people in your world and ally yourself with them, as these are the people who are worth investing your time.

Perseverance

It took me over five years of competing globally in karate tournaments before I won my first international fight. It is safe to say I have lost many more battles than I have won, and that victories have been far and few. Despite this, I never seriously considered quitting even when one of my coaches advised me to focus solely on my kata performances instead of fighting.

I simply continued to train and tried to learn from my defeats, questioning myself.

• What went wrong?
• What went well?
• What could I have done better?

In this manner, I persevered for years on end until the fateful day when I clinched my first international victory.

Confidence

Anything which takes you beyond your comfort zone once survived will increase confidence. Measuring up to the best gives a level of assurance in your own abilities. For me, it was competing in karate, but you can choose to compete in whatever you want.

Maybe you’re an aspiring artist. Creating artwork alone is one thing, but if you want to improve, you should get your work out there via some platform so that it can be compared, contrasted and critiqued. Sure, you won’t always hear good news, but that is another benefit of competing. While developing confidence, it also hardens each competitor when they are struck by defeat.

In my case, while partaking in martial arts is a confidence booster in its own right, I will say that competing has taken my self-assurance to a whole new height.

Conclusion

There are certainly more than three benefits that I have gained through competing, but I wanted to highlight my top three. If you compete, let me know what your greatest blessings have been, in the comments below.

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.