Keeping Your Goals in Sight

Cooperation and Competition

What? 

Being in a group working to together can have its benefits and be very productive but, it also can have some draw backs.  Previously I mentioned how great it is to be in a team all working to better one another (Holfstede,1980).  It also needs to be understood that at team is made up of individual’s and they do not always agree on certain goals. I am currently in a team that has added two new additions Power-lifter Andrew Jones, and future bikini competitor Andrea Long.  They are an amazing addition to the team. They are great motivator in the and out of the weight room.  The team could not have made such incredible gains in strength and definition without the addition of Andrew and Andrea.

So what?

Having Andrew now as a workout partner is great we help push one another to our breaking point and then some.  We are both very competitive as well so we love challenging each other in the weight room.  This can be fun at time but it can also take away from our main goal of following a program and getting stronger (Levip.77).  I will admit that it is mainly my fault I feel the need to always be the best and do the most weight.  This is not the right mentality to have.  It can be destructive and have the team lose sight of what we are trying to do (Levi 80).  Also it is a great way to get hurt.  I think it has something to do with the way I was brought up.  My mother had her hands full being divorced working full time and having to raise 3 children.  I will also mention my sister and I were not that well behaved.  Being the youngest of three was not always easy I felt alone most of the time and wanted attention.  I felt as if I was always competing with my brother for attention.  But I want to say that I had an amazing mother and I do not know how she had the courage and the strength to raise all of us alone.  There is much more to the story but that is for another day.  But that is where I believe I developed my competitive nature from fighting with my brother (Levi p77 Culture). 

Now what?

           That is where cooperation and communication comes in to save the day or by back.  Knowing that we are very competitive it helps having someone else in the team step in and talk some sense into us.  Lowering the weight and having good form beats heavy weight bad form any day.  This is where having good communication and knowing your team members well really helps.  Talking to each other working together (cooperating) and doing the weight that is better for you is going to help everybody reach their goals faster and create a better team (Levip.80).  So be smart listen to each other and always be safe.