Comparison. I see it all the time in competitive sports, competitive people just have an innate desire to be the best. The thing is though, being the best usually just means running faster, further or more than other people.
Competition can be a good thing which will push you on harder. Take club sessions for example, when you try and get in front of someone faster than you, you might not be able to do it but you worked that little bit harder for a while and got the training from it. Or when your club racing against another club, you want to do well for your club and you want your club to win. It just gives you that little extra magic to push a little bit harder.
It spans all areas of running from individual athletes, to coaches and even clubs. It’s really down how you judge what your version of best is. For example, for an individual athlete, they might see others running fast and have a goal to beat them. For a coach it might be to have the most clients. For a club, it might be to have more members than a rival club which is perceived as a good club.
In all these targets, it’s there. Comparison. All of those targets are based on other people.
When comparison becomes bad
It can destroy relationships and it can ruin a running career. I’ve seen people so desperate to beat a rival that when they failed, they nearly gave up running altogether. The fact that they PB’d in the race paled into insignificance over the fact they didn’t finish ahead of the competition.
Some people can be that focused a being better than others, that they revert to nefarious tactics in order be perceived as being better by outsiders. This can be as simple as casting doubt on other’s ability or, in extreme cases, actually to trying to sabotage another person just to look better than them.
It’s a awful position to be in, valuing your whole sense of worth based on other people. Whether you like it or not “being better than them” is dependant on them, why would you want that? You should be responsible for your own progress and happiness.
Focus on a better you
I have a saying “Focus on a better you”. A better you does not mean being better than anyone else, it means improving yourself, for yourself.
Personally, this phrase has helped me through a lot of the things I do relating to running. Whether it be my training, my coaching or anything we do at TeamBR. It’s a great mantra to stop yourself from worrying about other people and keeps you grounded in improving yourself. Because, ultimately, the only thing that you’re really in control of is yourself.
Keeping a more internal focus of bettering yourself helps to remove any external influence from the progress you’re making.
Take my earlier example. If that person hadn’t been so focused on beating their rival, they will have finished the race with a PB feeling elated. Instead, they walked away feeling sad, deflated, perhaps a little embarrassed and considering giving up running. It just shows on how changing your perspective can alter your perception of the outcome.
Put it into use
With all the social platforms around now it’s really easy to become obsessed with what everyone else is doing. Strava, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, the list goes on. Everyone advertises themselves in one way or another via these platforms and it’s an easy step to see what someone else is doing and have it affect your decision making.
You are your focus, everything else is nonessential
I use it with my own training, I have my goal and I work towards it and don’t let myself get caught up with grudge matches. My thoughts are always on what I need for training.
It’s the same thinking with anyone I’m coaching. If I know they’re prone to comparison, I ask them to put their Strava activities private and try to only look at their own activities. I can’t stop them looking at other people’s Strava but I can try to advise them not to. Having them focus purely on their own progress removes an element that could influence their performance and emotional state. It might even give them an edge of race day.
I occasionally get asked at club meetings if we’re going to do the same thing another club is doing. If it wasn’t already in our annual schedule that we decided at the beginning of the year, I challenge it by asking the questions “why are we doing it? Will it help our club? Are you thinking of doing this just because another club is doing it and you think we should?”. I don’t like using what other people are doing to influence us. If we did, we would just look like we’re out of ideas and copying.
Remember, focus on a better you, not being better than them. Stay authentic and true to yourself. It makes you train stronger, more confident and less likely to be thrown off track by something you’re not in control of.
