It’s our monthly non-fiction book review time, and instead of a “book” that I read this month, I’m going to talk about a documentary that I’m watching. Belinda Sheehan (a SFW alum who is a #2 Competition) posted about the documentary on Netflix called “Cheer,” which is about the reigning Grand National Champion collegiate cheer team.
Clearly, the head coach is high Competition, likely also high Focus or high Achiever. And it’s sort of amazing that she came into the school, they were completely unknown. She’s made them five-time Grand National collegiate champions. And you can hear, when she talks, that she wants to be #1 in the world more than she wants anything else.
It is so cool to watch how Competition as a Strength can really be a driver. We talk a lot around here about wanting to find people who are really doing great in your Strength and modeling yourself after that person.
Monica, the head coach in Cheer is absolutely a high Competition, probably a high Focus and/or Achiever as well. Of course, other Strengths I didn’t see. But the big, big one, though, was Competition.
The drive. The sheer drive.
When you want to be #1 in the world, the level that you have to push yourself to, in order to hit that level, is basically insanity. Watching Cheer, I can see the sheer commitment to excellence.
At one point, two cheerleaders are talking to each other, and you can hear them echoing the Competition phrases from their coach. One of the athletes, frustrated with having had a hard practice, is complaining about how hard the coach is driving them and says, “You know it wasn’t this bad last year. They did not push us this hard. We did not practice like this every day.”
The other athlete says, reflecting the Competition theme, “Are you trying to win or are you trying to lose?” That’s definitely part of the Competition mindset. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to win? And if you aren’t, then what are you even doing on the court.
Granted, this is a very elite-level team, and not everyone with Competition will feel that comfortable with “expend absolutely every resource,” but if you are genuinely trying to be #1 in the world, the competition at that level is fierce. You have to be driven enough that you will push yourself beyond what you think you can do in order to be better than those around you.
This is why it’s so important for high Competition to know the field. See who they’re competing against. Know how hard they have to drive in order to maintain their place at the top (or on their way to the top).
Cheer is quite literally a clinic in high Competition, as a Strength.
It also adds a very fascinating and important shade to the way people strive for success.
I had the opportunity to coach a writer who was at the absolute top of her game. Likely #1 in the world. A name that everyone in the world would likely recognize. She also happens to have high Competition and high Focus and when we were having a conversation about those traits in her call, she called me out a little on something I had said in a podcast. I’d been trying to talk about QTP’ing the “you should write a book a month” thing and I ended up saying something very similar to, “you just have to accept the fact that you won’t make that much money.”
And she was almost offended that I’d said it. (Not in a mean way–she was trying to understand her Competition.) She pushed back on the word “accept” like I was encouraging people to be complacent.
She said, “No one should ever be content.”
And the middling competition and high Achiever in me thought, yeah, I see where that comes from, but I didn’t believe it with that conviction. But I could see that she believed it. She genuinely couldn’t understand the mindset of someone who would, as she termed it, “settle” for something. But what’s so cool about that attitude is that she’s not saying, “push harder, do better” because she sees herself as being above anyone. On the other hand, it’s because she downplays how important her drive is to the level of success she’s reached. Like a lot of very successful people, it just seems like the logical thing to do, to push as hard as you can. It’s just what she does. She doesn’t have to summon it.
Not that it’s “easy” for her to be so successful, but that the drive comes easily.
What’s so cool about talking to someone like her or watching a documentary like Cheer is that those of us with influencing or executing Strengths can still be emboldened in our drive by watching those super top performers. For me, because I don’t have high Competition, I know I’m never going to be driven like that. But I also know that I do have a lot of drive, and I care about working hard and doing a good job, so Monica and the Navarro cheerleaders inspire me.
My drive might come from somewhere else, but her drive inspires me. Their drive inspires me.
High, high recommendation for anyone with high Competition or Focus, though. Definitely, check this one out.
NOTE: If Competition is super low for you, there’s a good chance this particular nonfiction-of-the-month won’t appeal to you, and that’s ok. We’ll do another one! But I hope, at least, it gives you a glimpse into how it can be generative for those who do have high Competition.
It certainly made me want to work out more. 😊
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