So, please, don’t expect me to. Don’t expect me to wake up and have competition with another person my goal for the day. I’m not here for competition against you. I’m here to do the best I can do. I’m here to work at making myself the greatest that I can be, in whatever I decide to do. Far too often in life we get swept away with others and what they are doing, that we forget to focus on ourselves and what we are doing. It’s not a race to the finish line. Life is not a competition.

Yes, competition can be motivational. It can help. Yet, people lose themselves in competition and forget that their life and their happiness are not a part of a race on who can graduate first, or who gets married first. It’s not about who buys the better car or who has the most expensive shoes. Life isn’t about how many friends you have or who you’ve dated. Life isn’t about looking at your peer and thinking “I’m going to kick their ass at life!”

That kind of thinking makes life messy. It makes life stressful. It makes life hurt.

No… Instead of expecting me to compete against you, know that I am rooting for you. I might not be vocal about it, because I’m busy doing my own thing, but I am wishing you the best. I’m hoping that you are able to accomplish the things that you set out to do. I want you to win. I want us all to win at life, if that’s even possible. Do things you love. Enjoy the people you love. Learn. Grow. Set out and do the things that you want to do because they make you happy, not because you are trying to beat someone to the punch. Take your time or go as fast as you like. Each new adventure you decided to do, do it the way you want to and don’t worry so much about what other people are doing or not doing. This will be hard, but so is life. But we’ve made it this far, so I know we can make it further.

I leave you with words from Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”

Have a wonderful day, friends. Go kick life’s ass.