Compete

It's been a while since I got anything from Calvin and Hobbes, so today's Thought is a welcome addition. When I was a young child, I took piano lessons. Not only did I take lessons, but I competed. There were two contests that I took part in. One was again all the other players entered - I had to play better than them in order to win. The other contest I entered was against myself. All I had to do was play better than I did the year before. In the end, my performance was compared to two entities - myself and everyone else.

Think back to a time when you competed with someone else. For many, I know the spirit of competition, the drive to be better than someone else, is very powerful. And there's nothing wrong with that. However, it is important to remember that the only person we really have to compete against is ourselves. Rather than beat out every other piano player, our mission should be to beat our previous years performance. Who do you compete with? Yourself? Or everyone else?