Lumina Spark defines competition as a personality trait this way: Strong willed with a can do and win/win mindset for all teams they are part of. Energized by competition and views "win/lose as a fact of life. Proud, skeptical.
Why is this on my mind today? Well I attended a university football game on Saturday. A serious match between a David team and a Goliath team. Malcolm Gladwell, in his new book David and Goliath, may have examples of David teams that triumphed but sadly the Goliath took the trophy on this one. As I watched I found myself really wanting our nephew's team (David) to win. I also felt uncomfortable if people booed the other team if one of their players was hurt. There wasn't much of that but it got me to thinking about the family and friends of those players (Goliath) and how they were somewhere in the crowd wishing for the same thing I was wishing for. That their son, brother, nephew, boyfriend's team would win the trophy. Once I start down that path I can't wish for anyone to lose.
Which leads me to Lumina. I took another look at my personality traits and at my Red Archetype qualities as competition is one of the qualities measured. I couldn't remember if my competition qualities were high or not. There have been times when I have been accused of being competitive. Yet I would rebel against that label since I never felt any satisfaction of winning knowing someone else has to lose.
But when I had another look at my RED Qualities I saw that my competitive was quite low. Lumina defines the following three other qualities in the Red Archetype in this way:
Takes Charge: Seizes the initiative in a group and is drawn towards leading. Persuasive, comfortable with responsibility and assertive.
Tough: Able to argue forcefully and be forthright. Comfortable with conflict and or debate. Emotionally Resilient; courageously tackles difficult conversations (i.e the elephant in the room) Candid, don't need to be popular, likes to challenge
Logical: Objective and rigorously applies reason. Critical thinker, hard liner, shrewd.
My Logical, Tough and Takes Charge are quite high. If you look at the definitions of these qualities you might be able to see what I see? Those qualities would or could be mistaken for competitive by some people in some contexts. Being assertive and forthright and being comfortable with conflict and or debate or objective and rigorously applies reason might be perceived as trying to win. Interesting how fine tuned our personalities can be.
Sports teams are all about win/lose so if your child is on a team parents cannot wish for anything except a win for their child. But I have yet to find in my rational, logical and tough mind any real reason for making winners and losers out of them for the sake of the "game".
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