Winning and losing may mean different things to different athletes. But the essence of competition is ultimately that, winning and losing.

I’m not a bike racer, but I try to ride faster than the guy in front of me. I’m not a scratch golfer, but I try to beat my buddies for a quarter a hole. That said, I’m really trying to ride faster and shoot better, to improve my own abilities or overcome a personal best or simply do something I’ve never done. 

My first century ride (100 miles), it was a victory just to finish and, to be candid, rather emotional. The next one, I finished 20 minutes faster, and that was emotional too. Those were victories. Without that motivation, why pays your money and takes your chances?

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do,” Eleanor Roosevelt once said. Good philosophy.

If you’re not playing to win, however you define it, what’s the point?