What CrossFit Has Taught Me About Competition

One thing that has surprised me about my CrossFit journey is how much I enjoy the competitive aspect of it.

As a yoga teacher, and in certain circles in which I associate, that’s a hard thing to admit. It can feel antithetical to the principles of those pieces of my identity.

For years, many of the spiritual feminine leaders I’ve followed have proclaimed that “competition” isn’t “feminine.”

The memes abound, encouraging women to “collaborate, don’t compete.”

Why Some Women View Competition as “Bad”

The reason offered for demonizing competition is the theory that competition promotes scarcity, lack, and a zero-sum, winner-take-all mindset that pits one person against another.

It’s this mindset that has historically caused women challenges in the workplace and the broader world. With fewer opportunities available to women, it might have been true at one point that there was only one spot in the corner office or at the top of the org chart.

The Problem With Demonizing Competition

The problem with making competition bad is that it results in the same type of all-or-nothing thinking that those who lambast competition are trying to avoid.

It morphs into the idea that we can collaborate OR compete.

This can cause us to push our competitive nature into shadow, where it ends up manifesting as jealousy or the type of “winner-take-all” mindset that can be destructive to relationships.

But this isn’t what competition is really about.

The Real Meaning of Competition

This mindset is also based on a misunderstanding of what competition is.

The Latin prefix com- is the same prefix used in *com*unity, *com*munication, *com*munal, and *com*raderie, among other words.

It means “with” or “together.”

The word competition, literally translated, means “to seek together.”

Understanding this meaning of competition completely changed my mindset around what competition could look like.

Once I understood this meaning, I started to think of competition in two distinct ways:

Competition against and Competition with.

Competition Against vs Competition With

Competition against is the type of competition that can be destructive. This is the winner-take-all, all-or-nothing approach that can trigger beliefs of scarcity and pit women against each other.

This form of competition can be energetically draining, because it always presents a zero-sum game.

Competition with is a completely different experience. This is competition in its true meaning: seeking together.

Instead of being an alternative to collaboration, it embraces the both/and: it’s collaborative competition.

Competition with can be energizing, because you are supported by community.

This type of competition can also provide a driving force — a focal point — that helps us achieve our goals.

There’s nothing like a desire to win to light a fire under you.

Finding Healthy Competition

This is the competition I experience in CrossFit. Yes, there is a leaderboard. And as is the case whenever you rank people, someone will be on the top and someone will be on the bottom.

But it’s not a zero-sum game. Each of us is aiming to do our best.

We support each other in reaching those goals. Someone who is super strong in one area might be less strong in another area.

We can, and do, all learn from each other.

This type of competition relies on the strength of community to help us grow. My PR doesn’t affect anyone else’s ability to hit their PR. If anything, we can be encouraged and supported by others who are similarly dedicated.

In this way, we all benefit from the competitive nature of CrossFit, and our individual competitive natures.

We compete with each other against the workout, to achieve our personal best wherever we are.

Rethinking Competition

For a long time, I had put my competitive spirit into shadow. Ironically this kept me from living into my full potential. It also hindered my ability to develop relationships with other women who I viewed as being in competition against me.

This year’s CrossFit Open has helped me come into deeper acceptance of my competitive nature, and to recognize its benefits — both in terms of sparking my drive as well as in helping me nurture deeper relationships with my co-conspirators in this game of life.

How to Embrace Your Competitive Nature in a Healthy Way

When you find yourself feeling jealous of another person, check in with your competition meter. You are most likely viewing this person as being in competition against you.

What can you reframe to see this as a competition with situation?

Sometimes it’s simply a matter of opening ourselves to what we can learn from those people we see as our competitors.