By: Maddie Schmidt
It was 5 o’clock on a Monday morning, in the middle of summer. My dad had just dragged me and my brother out of bed, urging us to hurry and get dressed. This may seem like a drastic, out-of-the-ordinary request for a 10-year-old and 12-year-old during summertime, but for us, it was just part of the routine. From the age of 5 to 13, I was on a swim team that held practice at 6 a.m. every day, except on the weekends. I used to complain about having to wake up that early and work so hard during what was supposed to be my break, but I look back now with gratitude. Being on a swim team taught me that competition is a good thing; it pushed me to better myself through motivation.
My team would compete against other teams in the area, and my family would go to various locations every other weekend to attend the competitions, called “swim meets.” When I started out, I didn’t care so much about winning. I was just excited to participate. But as I got older, I noticed that I was improving. I started looking at the girls around me who were my age, and I wanted to measure up.
I started working harder at practice. I began taking the conditioning more seriously, and I grew to enjoy starting off my day by swimming laps. I wanted my teammates to take me more seriously—to notice that I was getting faster and that I was one of the best. I was okay with not being the fastest or the best swimmer in my age group, but I enjoyed the idea of being among the few swimmers that people would be nervous to compete against.
This experience taught me the value of working hard and finding your own motivation to do so. Once I realized that I wanted to get better, putting in the work actually became fun. Early-morning practice became something that I looked forward to, and when my hard work began to pay off, I felt immense satisfaction.
There was, however, a summer when my confidence took a huge hit. A new girl named Liv joined the team when I was around 10 years old. Her technique was great, and she was extremely fast, especially for her height. In swimming, the taller you are, the greater advantage you have. Being short for her age, she had a disadvantage, yet she was faster than some of the older girls.
Having Liv on the team was hard for me. I began to compare myself to her, and a lot of my motivation began to stem from wanting to specifically measure up to Liv. She hardly even came to practice, yet she still mopped the floor with anyone she raced against. It was extremely frustrating. I spent the whole summer comparing myself to her, and as a result I had a horrible summer.
The next year, I resolved to put Liv in the back of my mind. She still came to practice every once in a while, and she still demolished every competitor she raced against, but I stuck to my resolve. When I was up against her, I did not let myself become disappointed if I did not beat her. I came to the conclusion that Liv was simply at another level than I was, even if we were the same age. After I went back to focusing on myself and the other girls, competing became fun again. Now, these other girls were still great competitors, and I wanted to best them, but racing them was more give and take; sometimes they would win and sometimes I would win. They still kept me on my toes and pushed me to work hard, but I was not comparing myself to them in the same way that I did with Liv.
Looking back on this experience, I see a significant difference between competition and comparison. I have heard people say that both competition and comparison sow seeds of feeling inadequate, and that both are harmful. But I believe that competition is, at its core, healthy for us to experience. Competition pushes us to do our best, overcome obstacles and grow. It is comparison with others that snatches our motivation and makes us feel inadequate. Comparison keeps us stuck in one place and often smothers our determination. When I first began comparing myself to Liv, I was motivated to work hard and match her skill. But as time went on, I didn’t try as hard to climb up to her level. I just began to feel worse about myself, and I started disliking her even though she did nothing wrong.
Now that my swim team days are behind me and I am not in literal competitions anymore, I have found that it is helpful to be in competition with myself. I strive to always improve as I take up new ambitions with sports, school or even hobbies.
It is good to learn how to compete without comparing; it is a life skill that will take us far. Comparison is nothing but a distraction that will keep us from moving toward our actual goal. It keeps us looking sideways at the people around us, instead of looking forward to what we want to achieve.
