Question: Can we play sports without the sense of competition?
Answer from Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.
Well, I do not know if I am the right person, because I was never in a competitive mindset.
And that was actually because even as a child, I did not want to make other people feel bad by being better than them. I can see that there are some people that are very driven by this competitive mindset. And I even think that to some degree it can help people’s growth, that they feel they have to make an effort and really improve themselves in order to do better in the sport. I would say that you are actually really competing with yourself to try to do better than you did before. And I would say that when you have a sporting event like the Olympics, there is only one person that can get the gold medal. Does that mean all the others are no good? If you, for example, look at American athletes that go to the Olympics, you can hear them say, “I lost because I only got the silver.” But here, you are talking about all the athletes in the world and your second best, is that not pretty good? But no, it is win or nothing. I would say that that attitude means that a lot of people are going to get hurt because there is only one person that can win. But, if you have the attitude that you are trying to do better than yourself, you can always win, because if you did better than you did the last time, how is that not a victory? If there are other people that do better, well, is that such a big deal?
In a lot of sports, it is how your body is. Is it suited for that particular sport? And that is something you were born with, what can you do about it? If somebody has a body that is a little better at running than yours, you can never beat that person. But what you can do, is you can improve yourself, and every time you do, that is a victory. Maybe that can help people to look at it that way and say: “Why have this ‘only one person wins’ mentality, instead of seeing that everybody wins?” But I think, if you talk to some of these American athletes and tell them this, it would have no effect, because they are so focused on winning. It is the only thing that matters.
Question: The question is about sports changing in the golden age, and it has become more civilized than in the gladiator days because you cannot kill each other, now you are competing in a more peaceful way.
I would say that in the golden age, of course, sports is going to change, and it is going to change because the attitude is going to change. It is going to be less competitive. It is going to be more: “if I am improving myself, that is a victory.” I think it is again, as we grow into the golden age, people will become more aware of the psychological aspects of any activity, including sports. I think that there will emerge this idea that you really need to be a good sports person, sports man or woman. That is not just a matter of the physical results, but also your attitude, and your attitude to other people. Are you just trying to put other people down and out-compete them? Are you willing to use doping in order to win? With all of these things, there is a certain attitude that needs to be cultivated that is more important than the physical results.
Copyright © 2023 Kim Michaels