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Competition – Audio Hi, I’m AJ Hoge and welcome to our new lesson. At the beginning of this summer, I felt lazy,
physically lazy. I had just returned from Spain, from a wonderful, in fact, two month trip to
Spain. But back in the United States all my motivation was gone. I didn’t want to work. I
didn’t want to exercise. You know I just wanted to think about Spain and remember the trip,
but I had no motivation for anything else.
Now, I was in great shape at the time. In Spain I had been walking every single day, like six
to eight hours a day carrying a backpack, hiking. So I started back in the United States in
great shape, great physical fitness. But week by week my physical fitness got worse and
worse, because I was so lazy. I’d wake up in the morning and think ah, I should exercise, I
should do something. I tried to push myself, force myself to do it but eh, just I didn’t want to
do it, I just felt lazy, I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t force myself to do it and so I’d just eat
breakfast and then go and sit in a coffee shop all day.
And this repeated day after day after day, and of course, my fitness level dropped and
dropped and dropped and, of course, as my fitness level dropped I got even more lazy,
downward spiral. It seemed hopeless, but while I was at the coffee shop looking online, just
playing around, I came across a website for this stick fighting. It’s this group that, actually a
group I had belonged to many years ago, 20 years ago, where they put on helmets and
padding and armor and then they use sticks and they hit each other with the sticks and they
fight, they have fights with these sticks.
And uh, I don’t know, for some reason I thought oh that sounds fun I should do that again. I
haven’t done something like that in a long time, and I thought oh, I should do it again. So I
went to the website and then I found the local group. Now at the time we were in Indiana,
the state where my sister lives, we were staying with my sister, so my wife and I, we went to
a meeting of this group. And uh, we also went to watch a couple of their fighting practices,
and as I watched I got more excited, I said oh that looks so fun, that’s great I want to do it.
But, something else happened as I watched.
As I watched I realized, oh my God, these guys are big and strong and fast, and they’re
hitting each other quite hard. Even though they’re wearing padding and armor, I knew it
would be painful, because I could remember from 20 years ago it’s painful when you get hit
by a stick full force, even with the padding. So then I started to get a little scared, because I
knew, wow, if I do this I have to compete against these guys and most of these guys are
bigger and stronger than I am. I decided, well, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. It looks fun.
It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and I remember enjoying it so much so why not,
I’m gonna do it.
So we went home and the next morning I woke up and I started thinking about exercising
again, but this time I remembered the fighting practice, the stick fighting. And I remembered
the big guys and how strong they were, and I thought oh, if I’m gonna compete against
these guys, if I’m gonna fight against them, I need to be stronger and faster. And so that
morning I got up and I started doing kettle bells. It’s this kind of, looks like a cannon ball, a
big iron ball with a handle. I started doing these swings with it and lifting them to get
stronger. I did some push-ups. I did some pull-ups. The next morning I did the same thing.
The next morning I did the same thing.
Then I started thinking about the actual fighting and the skills, and I thought ah, how can I
improve my skills so that when I fight these big strong guys I’ll be good, I can compete
against them. I can beat them. And I thought, well, maybe boxing, while boxing is kind of
similar, maybe if I practice some boxing skills I could use that with the stick fighting too,
similar footwork similar movements. So I did, I started to practice boxing skills in the
morning also. I got some DVDs for boxing, so I woke up every morning I did push-ups, I did
pull-ups, I did the kettle bells and then after that I started working on boxing skills, and then
I got a stick and I
tried to use the boxing techniques, but with a stick instead.
And so then for the next several weeks I exercised more and more and harder and harder
and I got stronger and stronger and stronger, and I got faster and my technique improved
more and more and more. Why did I do it? Competition. It was the idea of competing
against people bigger and stronger than me. That’s what pushed me and why suddenly I
got all of that incredible motivation to exercise, to get stronger, to become more fit;
competition.
Nowadays especially, competition is often viewed or described as being negative. I notice in
the media a lot that it’s all about cooperation. Cooperation or in books, cooperation is so
wonderful, oh we need to all cooperate. And, indeed, cooperation is wonderful. Indeed we
need, we absolutely need cooperation in our life. We need to work with other people and
cooperate with them together, it’s helpful and wonderful to work with other people towards a
shared goal to overcome shared obstacles and problems. Cooperation is indeed fantastic.
But! Just because cooperation is great doesn’t mean that competition is bad. It doesn’t
mean it’s automatically bad to compete against other people, and in fact, it’s not bad it’s
natural. Competition is good. Competition is completely natural, in fact, there’s no way to
avoid it. As a living being there’s no way to avoid it. Competition is part of being alive on this
planet. It’s the story of evolution, for example, different species competing for the same
resources. Human beings have always competed against each other; in sports, in games,
in business, individuals, groups, teams, governments, competition is everywhere. It’s
nothing to fear it’s a positive force. It can make us stronger and better.
In my example, right, I was lazy, I couldn’t get myself motivated. It was the competition that
motivated me. Because of that potential competition, not even actual competition just
potential competition energized me to get stronger and more fit and more healthy. It was a
very positive force for me. Competition, in fact, has tremendous benefits, we just need to
look at competition in the right way. The problem is, too many people look at competition as
a negative, stressful thing, where, oh they’re trying to beat me and oh eh, and they focus
too much on the other person, on the opponent. And then they get stressed out, they feel
bad and then they decide competitions a bad thing, I don’t like it. That’s terrible. It’s not the
right way to view it. There’s a much more positive beneficial way to look at competition. We
can look at it in a very positive way, as something that is extremely beneficial to us as
individuals and indeed to human society as a whole.
What are the benefits, the huge big benefits of competition?
Number one is self-improvement.
Competition naturally pushes us to improve ourselves. When I thought about fighting
against those bigger, stronger guys, I realized I need to get stronger. So the competition
pushed me to improve myself. In business, competition pushes all the competitors, all the
businesses in an industry to improve. They’re always trying to get better than each other
and as a result they keep improving. The opposite we see in some places, in some parts of
the world, in some industries where there’s not competition or there’s low competition, then
you get monopolies or you just get a couple companies dominating. What happens?
Everything gets worse. Without competition they’re not forced to improve. Without
competition they’re not forced to be good to their customers. So what do they do? They
raise their prices. Their service becomes worse and worse and worse. It’s horrible for
customers.
Competition in business is a good thing for most of us. So self-improvement- competition, is
a powerful motivator for self-improvement.
Teamwork is another powerful benefit of competition
Competition can pull people together. Competition can actually encourage cooperation.
Right? Think of sports teams, especially good high quality sports teams. Without
competition they don’t have much reason to work together. They don’t have much reason to
cooperate, to help each other, but when they have to face a tough opponent the whole
team will come together stronger. Because they know, to beat the other opponent they
have to be stronger. They have to work together better. They have to have better
cooperation or else they will lose against the other team.
So, in an interesting way competition encourages cooperation. Competition encourages
better teamwork and creates stronger teams.
Another great, huge benefit of competition is that it increases productivity, it gets us to do
more work in a shorter time.
It’s easy to become lazy if you’re not competing with anyone. It’s easy to sit on your hands,
we say right, it means you’re sitting on your hands, if you’re sitting on your hands you can’t
do work. It’s easy to do that if there’s no one else to compete against, no one else who’s
pushing you. That’s what happened with me and my fitness level during the early summer.
No one was pushing me at all. I had nothing, it was quite easy just to wake up in the
morning and be lazy. But, when I was faced with potential competition, suddenly I had to be
productive. Like, oh wow, every day I need to work. I need to get more done. It’s the same
in business. So it can make us more productive. We get more, well, we get more done and
we get more useful things done when we’re faced with competition. These are great things.
They make our lives better.
Another story, this is a very personal story for me. My own company, Effortless English,
faces competition and it faces some competition that is particularly negative. What I’ve
found, after Effortless English became famous and very successful around the world,
something happened. Other English teachers started to copy me. I noticed that other
websites started popping up and they copied me, I mean, almost exactly. I would read their
websites and it sounds, they read or they sounded like they just copied and pasted from my
website. I mean, the phrases, the actual words they chose sounded exactly the same as my
own website. They copied my style of teaching.
That’s right, these copycat competitors, at first, upset me tremendously. I was like God what
is it, these guys, what’s wrong with them? Are they creative? Can’t they create their own
method? Can’t they write their own website? Why do they have to copy me? And I got very
upset by the competition and especially the copying, upset me tremendously. It felt like I did
all this work myself and now all these people are competing and copying me, and trying to
steal from me. It upset me quite a lot, for a while.
But then, after I got angry and upset, I started to work harder. I started to realize, well, if
they’re copying everything I’m doing now, trying to be the same as me, I need to keep
improving. I need to be more creative. I need to innovate, so that I’m always ahead of them,
I’m always doing something different, always doing something a little new.
I need better skills.
I need to be a better communicator.
I need to be a better public speaker.
I need to be a better storyteller.
I need to develop my voice more.
I need to be more emotional.
I need to use my body in a more effective way.
I need to get on bigger stages and speak to more people.
I need to write a book and then more books.
And so all those copycat competitors, who at first upset me and made me quite angry,
ended up pushing me to be more innovative. Pushing me to continue improving, because
the truth was, I was getting a little bit lazy, right. Effortless English was very successful. It
had become quite famous, so it would have been easy for me just to keep doing exactly the
same thing forever. But, the competition, the copycats pushed me. I realized nah, I can’t
keep doing that cause they’re just gonna keep copying me, so I want to stay ahead of them.
I want to keep improving, and then I realized you know, this is better for me anyway it’s not
just about the competition. I want to continue improving. I want to continue trying new
things. I want to become better and better and get more skills, and continue to innovate.
And so I started working on all these different skills, especially public speaking and
storytelling.
And then I realized ah, I should focus on pronunciation, I can teach learners how to speak
English with better pronunciation, that’s a whole new thing, I’ve never taught that before. So
I learned how to teach that and developed my own method for that. And then I thought,
well, companies always want me to speak to them and help them, so I can develop a
program and a course specifically for companies, and I’m doing that right now. I can do the
movie technique. Students love the movie technique, I’ll start doing lessons using movies.
All of these changes happened because of the competition.
So let’s talk about the keys. How can you use competition in a positive way, and you should
you can’t avoid it, you’re always going to be competing in some way? So you might as well
do it in a way that’s positive and have a positive attitude about it. When you do that you get
great benefits.
Okay number one with competition. Focus mostly on yourself or your team, not on the
competition.
This is a hard one, right, because when someone starts competing with us, if it’s a sports
thing like boxing or something, well, you have your opponent. In business you have your
other businesses that are competing with you, whatever it is in life. And it’s easy, it’s easy,
to put all of your focus on them, right?
What are they doing?
What are they doing next?
What are they going to try to do?
How are they copying me?
Are they cheating or not?
And to be focused, focused, focused outwardly, but that doesn’t benefit you really. The truth
is that competitor, they’re going to do what they do and you can’t control that. You get the
most benefit from competition when you focus instead on yourself. How are you going to
get better? If you want to beat them or, at least, stay even with them, you have to improve.
You’ve got to get better, so focus mostly on yourself.
How can you improve your skills?
How can you improve your communication?
How can you be a better competitor?
When you do that, competition becomes much more positive, because it becomes a
motivation for self-improvement. So focus mostly on yourself, not on the other team, not on
the opponent, not on the competitor.
Number two, focus on the process rather than winning.
This is another hard one. So we’re taught to win, winning is everything, win-win-win, gotta
beat them, win-win-win. If you win you’re a champion, yay, celebrate! If you lose then walk
off the field feeling terrible. That’s BS and that’s not really how most of life works, okay,
nobody wins all the time, nobody. Even the best champions in any sport they lose a lot,
they lose plenty. Like the best soccer or football teams, they still lose lots of games right?
They might win one championship one year or even two or three years in a row, but
eventually they don’t. Nobody can win all the time every time, so if you focus on winning
only you’re going to be unhappy a lot of the time, in fact, probably most of the time you’ll be
unhappy.
So instead of focusing on winning focus on the process. In other words, focus on
improvement. Focus on better teamwork. Focus on the skills that you need to get better.
Focus on all the things that will make you better and focus on the ways that you could
potentially win and then when the time comes, it doesn’t matter what happens, you feel
good about yourself because you did your best. You improved as much as you could. You
used as much effort, you put all of your effort into the fight, into the competition. Sometimes
you lose, sometimes you win, but if you do that whatever happens you can keep your head
up and feel good about yourself, and walk off the field or the presentation or the stage,
whatever it is, and you can feel good about yourself. And you will feel good because you’ll
be better. You’ll have made yourself better. You’ll know you did your best and there’s no
shame in that, even if you lose sometimes.
A third part, and this is important, is an attitude of playfulness.
See it as a game. I think this is maybe, one of the things that makes people so miserable
when they compete is they’re too serious about it and this is true for winners and losers,
I’ve seen both right, people who lose and then they cry, eh they’re super upset and ah I
lost. But even with winners they’re so serious and so crazy about winning-winning-winning-
winning ah. That there’s no fun, there’s no joy, there’s no excitement, there’s no happiness
in it, so even if they win it doesn’t matter and if they lose they’re miserable.
And that’s a lot of the reason why many of us see competition as negative, it’s those kinds
of attitudes, but you don’t have to have that attitude. Competition can be something that’s
playful and enjoyable, right? As kids I remember we used to play American football in the
street every day and we’d fight and tackle and sometimes, you know, my friends would win
and sometimes my team would win. But we all just loved the game, it was so much fun and
it didn’t really matter, I mean, we tried to win, but in the end of the day it didn’t matter if we
won or lost really, because we just had so much fun playing the game. Because we realized
it was a game, right, a game.
In truth most competition is a game, even in business, it’s a game. Yes, we might lose
money or make money, but in the end it’s just a game, right? We’re not gonna take that
money with us after we die. It’s a game and the more you can view the competition as a
game and as something to enjoy, something that’s more playful, the more benefit you get
from the competition, the more you improve, the more productive you become, and the
more positive and happy you feel while competing. It won’t become something that’s scary
or negative it becomes something that’s fun and positive, so you’re smiling as you compete.
And then at the end, win or lose, you still feel good.
And finally, at a deeper level, a philosophical level, realize that ultimately you’re just
competing with yourself. That in any competition the true competition is not really with that
other person, they’re helping you in a way.
You’re competing with yourself.
You’re competing against your own fears.
You’re competing against your own weaknesses.
You’re competing against your own worries.
You’re competing against your own doubts.
You’re competing against your own limits, and
You’re trying to push beyond those things and discover what is possible for you.
And when you think that way you can think of your opponent as a helper. They’re helping
you. They’re pushing you to be more. They’re pushing you to go beyond your current limits,
your current doubts. They’re pushing you to go and grow and become more, and in that
way, your competitor is actually your ally. And that’s what I think about when I thought
about the stick fighting, right, or with the business example, that those copycat guys, that in
the end they’re helping me grow, they’re helping me get better, they’re helping me improve
as a teacher still. They’re helping me stay motivated and excited about what I’m doing, not
just keep doing everything the same. And if I realize that I can realize, you know, in a way
then they are my friends and my allies, they’re actually benefitting me.
Think about that any time you find yourself in a competition, and especially if you start
getting upset about it. Start thinking, how am I actually competing with myself? Where is the
real competition? It’s inside. It’s my own fears. It’s my own emotions. It’s my own limits, my
own weaknesses, and you’ll appreciate that competition a lot more and even appreciate
your opponents. Even if you don’t like them you can still appreciate them and respect them
for how they’re helping you grow.
So this month, what I want you to do is to find some area in your life where you can
compete in a positive way using all the ideas I just discussed. It might be a sport. It might
be a business, I don’t know, whatever. But find some competition that you feel is healthy
and fun and that will push you to improve and to grow. And most of all, as you do it, keep
that playful positive attitude and enjoy the benefits of competing.
I’ll see you next time. Have a great day. Bye for now.
Competition – Interactive Essay Lesson A
Hello this is AJ, welcome this month’s interactive lesson part A. This is an essay by a
famous basketball coach named John Wooden. John Wooden was probably the greatest
college basketball coach ever, in the United States. His essay is called ‘The Final Score’.
Let’s begin… The Final Score
***********
The final score is not the final score. My final score is how prepared you were to execute
near your own particular level of competence, both individually and as a team. There’s
nothing wrong with that other fellow being better than you are, as long as you did everything
you possibly could to prepare yourself for the competition. That is all you have control over.
That is all you should concern yourself with. It may be that the other fellow’s level of
competency is simply higher than yours. That doesn’t make you a loser.
In 1962, in the final four against Cincinnati, who won the championship that year, we lost in
the last few seconds of our semi-final game. However, the UCLA players left the court as
winners in my eyes. I was disappointed that we lost, of course, but I had the greatest pride
in how the team had performed and how they had prepared hard and progressed during the
year. We were almost 20 points down in the first 10 minutes of the game and then came
from behind to even it up at the half.
We fought very hard in the second half and Cincinnati, perhaps, had superior personnel.
But what I saw out on the court during that game was a UCLA team that came as close as
we could come to being the best that we could be. That’s a wonderful accomplishment.
Goodness gracious sakes, I am proud of that effort. So proud, even now. Was I
disappointed we were outscored? I’m still disappointed we were outscored, but I was never
dejected. Mostly what I was and am, is proud. Our team was outscored but we were
winners. I had the greatest pride in how the players prepared, progressed and performed.
I felt this philosophy would have a much greater positive impact on the outcome of events
than a stress on trying to outscore opponents. It’s a focus on improving yourself, rather than
comparing yourself to the other team as indicated by a score. Furthermore, when you get
too engrossed in those things over which you have no control, it will adversely affect those
things over which you do have control, namely your preparation.
You respect everyone. Then, you simply make the strongest effort to prepare to the fullest
extent of your abilities. The result will take care of itself and you should be willing to accept
it.
***************
Okay, let’s learn some of the vocabulary from this essay.
********
Vocabulary
Going back to the beginning, we have the word, the verb…
To execute – to execute, in this example, to execute means to perform or to do. It can have
another meaning but here it means to perform or to do, to execute.
Next phrase…
Level of competence – means, level of skill or level of ability. Level of skill or ability is level
of competence.
Other fellow – other fellow means other guy. Fellow is a little bit of an old word. It just
means guy, so other fellow means other guy.
The competition – the competition, here this means the opponent, the other team, the
opponent, the competition. Now, it could also mean a contest or tournament, depending on
the situation, but in this situation he’s saying the competition, it means the opponent.
Concern yourself with – to concern yourself with something means to think about it, to
focus on it. To think about something. To focus on something. Concern yourself with
something.
The final four – the final four is the semi-final level of the college basketball tournament in
America. So, it’s the final four teams in the tournament. All right, it’s a big tournament, starts
with, I think, 64 teams something like that and then one by one the teams are eliminated
until you get to the last four teams, those last four teams. That’s called the final four, the
final four, and specifically we use this in America for the college basketball tournament, the
final four.
Cincinnati – is both a city and it’s a college, a college in that city. So, when he talks about
Cincinnati he’s talking about the Cincinnati college basketball team.
Semi-final – it’s the game before the final. All right, in the final game the last two teams
play each other, but in a semi-final you have four teams. Two teams play each other, the
other teams play each other, the winners go to the final. That’s called the semi-final.
UCLA – UCLA is another college, another university. It’s the University of California in Los
Angeles. John Wooden, the writer here. John Wooden was the coach of UCLA, of UCLA’s
basketball team.
Twenty points down – we use this in sports. If you say UCLA was 20 points down, it
means they were behind, 20 points behind. They had 20 points fewer than the other team.
They were 20 points down.
Then they came from behind – came from behind it means they were behind. They had
fewer points and then they caught up. They equaled the other team or passed the other
team. That’s to come from behind. We use it in sports a lot, when one team is losing the
game and then suddenly they tie or they win. They come from behind or the past tense they
came from behind.
Even it up – to even it up- to even it up in sports means to tie the game. They were
behind then they evened it up. It means they tied the game, equal scores. To even it up.
Superior personnel – superior personnel just means better players, better staff or
better players.
The court – the court is the area where they play basketball. Of course, court has another
meaning also, a legal meaning, but in sports we call the place where they play basketball
that’s called a basketball court, right? In soccer we call it a field, there’s a soccer field but in
basketball it’s called a court, the basketball court.
The best that we could be – the best that we could be means, to reach our full potential, to
play our best, to be our best, the best that we could be.
Next phrase…
Goodness gracious sakes – this is a very, very polite, it sounds very old fashioned. Not
many people speak like this, but John Wooden was a very polite man. He coached
basketball back in the 50s, 60s and 70s. So goodness gracious sakes means, my God. It’s
the same meaning as my God! My God! Goodness gracious sakes, but goodness gracious
sakes, it’s a very, very, very, very super polite, really probably too polite way to say my God
or oh my God.
Dejected – is an adjective. To be dejected means to be depressed, very, very sad and
hopeless feeling, dejected. Dejected means feeling sad and hopeless, dejected.
A positive impact on – a positive impact on something means, a positive influence on
something, a positive effect on something, a positive impact on something.
A stress on something – means a focus on something. If you have a stress on
pronunciation in your English learning, it means you have a focus on pronunciation. It
means you’re focusing on it, you have a stress on it. It’s important to you.
As indicated by – as indicated by just means as shown by, as shown by. Indicated, shown
very similar.
Next phrase…
Engrossed in – to be engrossed in something. To be engrossed in something means you
give something all of your attention, all of your focus, all of your energy. To be engrossed in
basketball means to be obsessed with basketball, to be completely focused on basketball,
to be engrossed in basketball, to be engrossed in something. It has a positive meaning.
To adversely affect – this means to badly influence something or to negatively influence or
to negative effect. Adversely means, in a bad way, in a negative way. So if you adversely
affect something it means you have a bad effect on it.
Namely – namely, here namely means for example. Namely, for example. Or sometimes it
can mean especially, especially.
To the fullest extent – to the fullest extent means as much as possible. It means 100%.
So, you know, do your best to the fullest extent, means do your best as much as possible.
Do 100% of your best. Do your best to the fullest extent, to the fullest extent, the most
possible.
Finally, something takes care of itself – takes care of itself – it just means it will happen
automatically. The score will take care of itself means, the score will happen automatically
without worrying about it, without focusing on it too much If something takes care of itself
then it happens automatically without extra effort, without extra focus. It happens
automatically, takes care of itself or to take care of itself.
**********
Okay that is our interactive lesson part A with our vocabulary. In part B I will ask you
questions about the essay and you will answer with short, simple energetic answers, so you
learn this vocabulary completely.
I will see you in the next part.
Competition – Interactive Lesson B
Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to interactive B lesson for this month’s VIP. I will ask questions
during this lesson. Answer the questions with a strong voice. You can answer with just one
or two words, that’s okay, but use a strong voice and use your body. Be energetic when you
answer these questions. This will help you learn all of the vocabulary.
Let’s begin… The Final Score
*************
The final score is not the final score. My final score is how prepared you were to execute.
What is his final score?
How prepared you were to what?
How prepared you were to execute.
Does this mean, how prepared you were to kill someone?
No, no, not how prepared you were to kill someone, that’s a different meaning of the word.
This means how prepared you were to perform, to perform.
He says my final score is how prepared you were to execute near your own particular level
of competence.
Should you execute at your level of competence?
Yes, you should try to execute, to perform, at your level of competence, at your level of skill,
at your level of ability.
Should you try to execute below your level of competence?
No, not below your level of competence. You don’t want to be lazy, you want to execute,
you want to perform at your or near your own level of competence, your highest level of
ability, both individually and as a team, if you’re on a team.
There is nothing wrong with that other fellow being better than you are.
So, is it bad if your opponent, if the other guy, the other fellow, is it bad if he is better
than you?
No, according to John Wooden, there’s nothing wrong if the other fellow, the other guy is
better than you.
Should you feel depressed if your opponent, the other guy, the other fellow is better
than you?
No.
He says you should not, there is nothing wrong with that other fellow being better than you
are, as long as you did everything you possibly could to prepare yourself for the
competition.
So, you should prepare yourself for what?
For the competition. For your opponent. Or, it could also mean for the game, for the
tournament. So competition… here the competition could have two possible meanings. It
could mean your opponent, the person you’re competing against or the people. Or, it could
mean the event, the competition event, either one.
He says, that is all you have control over.
So what is the only thing you can control in competition?
Your preparation. Your own preparation is the only thing you can control in competition.
Can you control the other fellow, the other person, the other team?
No, you can’t. You can’t control them, you can only control your own preparation. You can
only control your own preparation.
So, he says, that is all you should concern yourself with.
What is all you should concern yourself with?
Your own preparation, that’s all you should focus on.
It may be that the other fellows level of competence or level of competency (either one), is
simply higher than yours. So it may be the other person is better than you. That doesn’t
make you a loser.
Are you a loser if the other person is better than you?
No, you’re not a loser.
If you lose the game, if you lose the competition does that mean you are a loser as a
person?
Of course not. No, you’re not.
Then John gives an example. He says, in 1962, in the final four against Cincinnati.
Who was his team playing in the final four?
Cincinnati, Cincinnati College. He was playing Cincinnati College. His team was playing
Cincinnati College.
Were they in the final game?
No, actually not, they were in the final four. In college basketball the final four is the semi-
final game. It’s the semi-final game.
So which game were they playing, the final game or the semi-final game?
The semi-final. They were playing the semi-final game.
Who were they playing in the semi-final game?
Cincinnati, Cincinnati College.
They lost in the last few seconds of the semi-final game.
Did they lose in the beginning of the game?
No, they didn’t lose in the beginning of the semi-final game, they lost right at the end. They
lost in the last few seconds of the semi-final game.
However, the UCLA players left the court as winners in my eyes.
So they lost the game, but did the coach think they were losers?
No, he didn’t think they were losers.
What did he see them as?
He saw them as winners. He thought of them as winners. He considered them to be
winners. So even though they lost the game, he felt they were winners.
He says, I was disappointed that we lose, of course, but I had the greatest pride in how the
team had performed and how they had prepared hard and progressed during the year. He
says, we were almost 20 points down in the first 10 minutes of the game.
So after 10 minutes were they winning or losing?
They were losing after 10 minutes. After 10 minutes they were 20 points down. They were
behind already by 20 points.
Were they up 20 points or down 20 points?
They were down 20 points.
When were they down 20 points?
They were down 20 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. At the beginning of the game
they were down 20 points.
And then they came from what?
They came from behind. So they were down 20 points, then next they came from behind to
even it up at the half.
So they came from behind, were they ahead or were they behind?
They were behind.
How much were they behind?
By 20 points. They were down 20 points.
Then they came from behind to even it up.
Did they pass the other teams’ score?
No, no, they didn’t pass the other teams score they evened it up, they tied the game. They
tied the score.
When did they tie the score? When did they even it up?
At the half, at the halftime of the game, the half point of the game.
So what did they do at the half point?
They evened it up. Right, they evened it up at the half.
He says, we fought very hard in the second half and Cincinnati, perhaps, had superior
personnel.
Interesting…
So which team had better players, more talented players?
The other team, Cincinnati. He said that perhaps Cincinnati had superior personnel, better
players. So he’s saying basically, the other team just had stronger players, they were more
talented.
But what I saw out on the court during that game was a UCLA team that came as close as
we could come to being the best that we could be.
So his team, the UCLA team they came very close to being what?
The best that they could be. They came very close to being the best that they could be. To
reaching their full potential.
He says, that’s a wonderful accomplishment. Goodness gracious sakes, my God! I am
proud of that effort, so proud even now.
Was I disappointed we were outscored, was he? Was he disappointed that his team
was outscored? Was he disappointed?
Yes, he was. He was disappointed that they lost. He was disappointed that they were
outscored.
Is he still disappointed about that result?
Yes.
He says, I am still disappointed we were outscored.
But, he says, I was never what?
I was never dejected. I was never dejected.
He was disappointed but he was never what?
He was never dejected.
Did he feel depressed and sad about the game?
No, he didn’t. He was never dejected. He was never depressed and sad, he only felt
disappointed.
So did he feel dejected or did he feel a little disappointed?
He just felt a little disappointed, he did not feel dejected. He did not feel depressed. He did
not feel sad or hopeless.
In fact, he says, mostly what I was and am, is what?
Proud. Mostly what I was and am is proud. He felt and he still feels proud of his team.
He says, our team was outscored, but we were winners.
So they lost the game, but in his mind they were still losers or winners?
In his mind they were still winners.
I had the greatest pride in how the players prepared, progressed and performed. I felt this
philosophy would have a much greater positive impact on the outcome of events.
This philosophy what’s he talking about?
This philosophy means the philosophy of focusing on your effort, focusing on preparation
only, not focusing on the opponent, not focusing on the score.
He believed the philosophy would have a negative impact or a positive impact on
winning?
A positive impact. He felt that by not focusing on the score his team would actually win
more, so that focusing only on themselves he felt, had a positive impact on the score, on
the outcome of the games, the outcome of the events.
He felt it was better than a stress on trying to outscore opponents.
So which did he like better, focusing on preparation or focusing on beating the
opponent?
Focusing on preparation. He liked focusing more on preparation. He did not like to focus on
beating the opponent, outscoring the opponent.
He says, it’s a focus on improving yourself, rather than comparing yourself to the other
team, as indicated by a score.
So which is better, according to John Wooden, to focus on improving yourself or to
focus on beating the other person?
Improving yourself. He feels improving yourself, he felt improving yourself is the key to
being a winner. It’s the key to being your best.
Furthermore, he says, when you get too engrossed in those things, over which you have no
control, it will adversely affect those things over which you do have control. Namely, for
example, your preparation.
Okay, whew that’s a long one.
So, if you get too engrossed in what, too focused on what, too obsessed with what?
Things you can’t control.
If you get too engrossed in things you can’t control. If you focus on things you can’t
control, will it positively affect your preparation or will it adversely affect your
preparation?
It will adversely affect your preparation. It will negatively affect your preparation. If you focus
too much on the other team, if you focus too much on things you cannot control, your
preparation will be worse, according to John Wooden.
It will adversely affect, does that mean negatively affect or positively affect?
Negatively affect. Negatively influence. Adversely affect…
He says, you respect everyone. Then you simply make the strongest effort to prepare to the
fullest extent of your abilities, to your fullest potential, the result will take care of itself and
you should be willing to accept it.
Do you need to focus on the result? Do you need to worry a lot about the result?
No, you don’t. You don’t need to worry a lot about the result.
The result will what?
Will take care of itself. The final result, the final score will take care of itself.
Will the final score happen automatically or do you need to worry about it?
It will happen automatically. The result will take care of itself.
If you get a bad result, if you lose, should you accept it or should you feel dejected?
You should accept it. He says, you should be willing to accept it. You might be disappointed
but don’t feel dejected, don’t feel sad and depressed.
Focus on your own preparation. Focus on improving yourself and the result will take care of
itself.
***************
Okay, that is the end of our interactive B lesson.
Listen to this one also, every single day. Repetition, repetition, repetition that’s how you
master the vocabulary. That’s how you master listening and speaking English, so every day
listen to all of the audios, repeating them again and again with a lot of energy. You can go
for a walk while you listen to these lessons, it’ll keep your blood moving, keeps your energy
higher.
See you in the commentary.
Bye for now.
Competition – Commentary Hello and welcome to the commentary for this months’ VIP lesson. Competition – the
competition is tricky, and you know, it’s possible to think about, to approach the competition
in many different ways with many different attitudes.
I think all of us have seen the very negative effects of competition and certainly there can
be negative effects, especially in our current culture, our modern world. A lot of people have
a competition mindset that is completely and only focused on the final result, on winning,
beating the competition and winning, winning, winning, winning, winning. And that kind of
mindset can produce a lot of negative side effects, a lot of negative results. Because, even
people who do win most of the time, if they’re completely focused on winning, winning,
winning, it can make them very aggressive. It can make them egotistical and selfish. It can
create a whole lot of stress, a ton of stress if you’re always worried about the final result,
that you have to win, win, win all the time.
The other thing is, that nobody, nobody, nobody anywhere in the world can win always. In
sports, even the very, very best players eventually lose. Not only do they eventually lose,
eventually as they get older they lose more and more and more often. In professional sports
they have to quit, they have to retire, so no matter how good they were. Let’s say Michael
Jordan, perhaps the best professional basketball player ever. Still, eventually, his skills
went down. Eventually he could not win all the time and he eventually had to quit, he had to
retire. This is also true in the business world. No business person, no salesperson can
always succeed every single time. So focusing on the result, on always winning, winning,
winning, beating the other person, it’s kind of a selfish mentality. It’s also a stressful
mentality and it’s a very unrealistic mentality.
Because we see this in the world, these negative effects so often, and we can see in the
business world, for example, people or companies that will do very bad things just to win,
just to make more money. So we have all these negative examples of competition and
because of that some people, many people really don’t like competition at all. They see it as
something that’s very negative. But, in this lesson, I hope you can see and you’re learning
that there’s a very positive side to competition too, and that we can use competition to
develop our skills, to develop our strengths and even to develop wisdom.
I think especially that John Wooden displays wisdom. He showed wisdom in his approach
to competition. As I said he was the most successful college basketball coach in the history
of the United States, in the history of college basketball in America, so he was very good.
But he had a very wise approach to competition. And, in fact, his approach is the same as
some very ancient and even spiritual approaches to this idea of competition and even
goals. See, what Wooden was talking about in his essay was the difference between our
actions and the results, our actions and the results. We can control our actions, we cannot
control the results.
Let me read you a quote from the Tao Te Ching, one of my favorite books.
‘Just do your job and let go. The only path to serenity.’
That’s from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.
Just do your job means, do your task, execute, perform as best you can and let go, then let
go means, let go of worrying. Let go of focusing. Once you finish your job, once you
perform then don’t think about it anymore.
And the Tao Te Ching says, ‘It’s the only path to serenity.’ Serenity means peace. The only
path to peace. Interesting.
What does that mean? What it’s saying is that you can own and you can control only your
own actions. That’s the only thing you really are in control of. The outcome, the final result
can be affected by many, many things, by many factors outside of your control. You should
focus therefore, on taking right action, correct action, the best action possible with all of
your heart. But then, after you take that right action, after you do the best action you can
possibly, then you let go of worry. You let go of your attachment to the results, you don’t try
to hold on to winning and you also don’t hold on to bad feelings about losing. You accept
any result that comes. You just accept it. You learn from it and then you move on, you
continue living.
This is what the Tao Te Ching is saying. This is also what John Wooden was teaching in his
essay.
Let’s talk about this idea of right action. Instead of focusing on the result, focusing on right
action. This is the same, by the way, when we’re talking about goals, the same idea.
Because, competition can have a negative mindset. You can do it with a negative mindset
or you can do it with a positive mindset. The same is true of goals. It’s the same particular
problem. Goals can be very great. They can help us develop. They can help us become
stronger. They can help us create better lives for ourselves, for other people. They can help
us learn and become more wise.
But, as with competition, if we focus too much on getting those goals, getting those results,
again we can create a lot of stress. We can create a lot of unhappiness. So it’s the same
mentality with a goal. You can choose a goal for your life, but after you do that it’s best to
take the same mentality of focusing on your actions, rather than the results.
So let’s talk about right action.
The first element of right action is that you focus on yourself, on self-development,
selfdevelopment is the key.
So, in competition or with goals, either one, instead of focusing outside, instead of focusing
on the other person or the outside result, you focus on developing yourself, developing your
own skills, improving your skills, improving your psychology, improving your attitude,
improving your mindset, improving your motivation, improving your self-discipline, improving
your energy, improving your consistency, improving your flexibility and adaptability.
Improving your creativity, all of these things you can control, because they are you. So you
focus on developing yourself. You focus on improving yourself. You don’t worry so much
about the opponent. You don’t worry about the outside world so much, instead you’re
focusing internally on self-development. That is one of the main keys to right action.
Key number two, which is part of our code in Effortless English. We do the best we can.
We do the best we can. That is part of our code, our very important code in Effortless
English. It means, be the best you can be to the fullest extent possible. But you’re human,
accept that you’re human. So sometimes you will lose. Sometimes you will fail. Sometimes
you’ll make mistakes. Sometimes you’ll be confused. It happens to every single person.
Total perfection is impossible, so just be the best you can be for just working to reach your
potential, do the best you can.
Finally, a very important part of right action, of taking right action, of focusing on right action
is that you must realize that the true opponent is always yourself.
If you’re playing tennis, then of course, you’re playing against another person, but if you
take a more spiritual, more deep, a more wise view of the competition you’ll realize that in
fact, the competition is always against yourself, against your own fear, against your own
weakness, against your own laziness, against your own ignorance.
The other person, you can’t control them. Maybe they’re better than you. Maybe they’re
worse than you, but that’s outside of your control. What you can only do is to look at
yourself. Try to improve your weaknesses. Try to make your strengths even better. Try to
have a better attitude. Try to be less lazy. All of these things, you’re competing against your
own mind, your own mental weaknesses and sometimes physical weaknesses. That’s the
true competition, not that other person or not that other team.
The second part of right action, of wise competition, of wise goal setting is a non-
attachment to results. This seems a little strange and it’s kind of a paradox.
Wise ideas often are paradoxical. A paradox is something that seems to be opposite. Two
things that are true but seem to be opposite.
What do I mean? Well, it means this. Non-attachment to results means on one hand you do
have a goal to win, right? If you play tennis then you’re trying to win the game. You are
trying to outscore your opponent. That’s the rules of the game, so of course, it’s part of the
game so you are trying to do that you’re not trying to lose. If you have a goal in your life,
well then, in your mind you do hope to achieve the goal, of course.
So, you decide on that basic goal right at the beginning, to win the game, to achieve the
result.
However, after you make that basic decision at the beginning you then kind of forget about
it. You then focus all of your attention instead on right action not on the result. You put
aside thoughts of winning or losing. You push aside thoughts of success or failure. You
constantly focus again and again and again, on right action, on developing yourself, on
being the best that you can be, on competing against yourself, your own weaknesses.
Now, of course, I know, that when you’re in a competition or when you’re having a big goal
that’s important to you, of course, you’ll start thinking again about winning. You’ll worry
about losing, but every time that happens you take a deep breath, you push aside those
thoughts of winning or losing, push aside the thoughts about results and once again focus
your attention on right action, on your actions, on what you can control. Your preparation,
your practice, your skills, your mentality, your motivation, your discipline, all of these things
that are inside of you, that’s where you keep your focus, on your own thoughts and actions.
Now, you’ll do this. You’ll do this again and again and the day will come and you will
compete. You will play the game. Maybe it’s tennis, maybe it’s a golf tournament, whatever
it is, maybe it’s something with business or something in your personal life, doesn’t matter.
But eventually, you will get a result and part of being wise with competition and goal setting
is how you react to the results. You will win or you will be successful. Or, you will fail and
you will lose. It’s very important how you react to those results.
If you win, when you win, when you are successful, try to accept it gracefully without too
much attachment. This is the key thing. Try not to be attached to, to grab onto this result,
this good feeling of winning. Of course enjoy it, of course it will feel good. You play a tennis
game and you win the game, you get a good feeling. That’s fine. But don’t hold onto it.
You’ll smile, enjoy it, but do it gracefully and realize, remind yourself in that moment that it’s
temporary. It’s always temporary. Every success, every time you win it’s temporary, right?
Because next time you might lose, you don’t know.
So, smile and enjoy it, but remind yourself ah well, it was a good day. It was a good
competition. I won today, that’s nice, but it’s temporary so I’m not going to hold onto it. I’m
not going to obsess about it too much. Instead, instead do what John Wooden suggests,
celebrate the quality of your effort. Celebrate the quality of your actions. Instead of being
proud about winning or beating someone, be proud when you do your best. Be proud when
you overcome one of your own weaknesses, even if you lose. So focus and celebrate the
quality of your efforts, rather than the final results. Don’t be too attached to that final result
of winning.
The same is true with losing, which is often harder obviously, it’s not as fun. When you lose
or when you fail at something, try also to accept it gracefully without too much emotion. Try
not to get dejected. Yes, of course, you’ll be disappointed just as John Wooden mentioned.
You’ll feel some disappointment of course, but try not to be dejected, depressed, super
emotional about it. Instead, calmly learn from your defeats. Calmly learn from your failures.
Again, realize they are also temporary.
Next week, next month, next year, you might win. You might have a great success and then
a year after that you might lose again and then after that you might win again. This is life.
There’ll always be failures. There’ll always be successes. So don’t get too attached to that,
instead, appreciate the quality of your efforts and your actions.
Again, in that essay, John Wooden was very proud of his team because of their great effort.
They lost the game. They lost the tournament but he was very proud of them anyway and
he celebrated the quality of their effort, the quality of their preparation.
This is part of the non-attachment to results. So we have two parts to this. These are the big
parts for competition.
Part one, focus on right action. Focus on your actions, your preparation, on self-
development, on being the best you can be, realizing that you yourself are the true
competition.
Then part two, non-attachment to results, non-attachment to results. Let go of your
obsession.
Let go of your worries about winning or losing. When you win accept it gracefully then let
go. When you lose accept it gracefully, learn from it and then let go. Realizing that it’s
always temporary, winning and losing are both temporary.
***********
All right, this month your action, what I want you to do. I want you to do something
competitive this month. Compete. This could be anything. If you’re a physical person it
could be a physical sport. Go out there and play a sport but do a competition so that you’re
competing against another person or another team. It could be something as simple as a
board game at home with your family. It could be anything, as long as it’s competitive
there’s winning and there’s losing.
When you’re doing this competition or these competitions, focus only on your actions.
Focus on the quality of your own actions only. And then, after you get the result, after you
win or you lose, practice accepting the result calmly, gracefully without attachment. Train
yourself to focus on right action and to let go of your attachment to results.
I look forward to hearing about your experiences this month. Connect with me on Twitter,
I’m AJHoge on Twitter. That’s Twitter.com/ajhoge. Say hi to me on Twitter.
See you next time, by for now.