We live in this kind of world. Everything is a competition and you have to play in this environment. Or maybe not. Maybe you can change the game. And use climbing for it.
Competitiveness is an epidemic nowadays.
It causes us more disadvantages than benefits. You may feel it in several aspects of your life but not even our climbing practice can escape from it.
We use to compare to others, measure ourselves in front of the people around us. When we do that, we are always losing. It makes us feel ankward aiming to be better than, or similar to someone else, or kind of trying to win something, mostly imagined competitions.
Well, there is the reason why, and it is not a secret at all:
It’s just an ego trip.
In life, as in climbing, there are no winners and losers. So, there is not any kind of competition. There are only a bunch of people in their own learning process and trying to get the best version out of themselves. But each one is walking his own path, in their particular way.
It is ok to admire other people, even that could encourage us to break our limits. It can show us new ways to explore. In a simple way, watch other people show us that something can be done, meaning it is possible.
But no need to measure yourself by comparing to others. You have your own goals, your own situation, your own motivations. Grab motivation and strength from watching others make amazing things, climbing impossible walls or just from your climbing partner that is performing really good lately. But always respect yourself, your own value, your own potential. Don’t be hard on you by tying your inner value to others people accomplishments.
Just learn from everything, enjoy your process and be happy to see other people doing the same.