Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam988  being competitive and taking things seriously also has its advantages.
I think that there needs to be a balance between competitiveness/uptightness and "laid-backness", for lack of a better word. |
I agree with this. This is one of the precarious things about attachment and non-attachment. In life, because we are human, I think we have to be serious about certain things - our well-being, the well-being of those we love, our work, etc.
Steve says he's taken up chess so I'll use chess as an example. I'm a violent competitor at chess and have huge goals in that area (in fact I was just in Las Vegas, Steve's neck of the woods, for a competition). Some people use "it's just a game" or "at least it was a learning experience" as an excuse to stop trying even before the game ends -- or even before it starts. While they're entilted to that, such comments "it's just a game" don't often seem to resonate with their being -- they don't actually feel that way. They just seem to be using it as an excuse not to examine their weaknesses.
Just like in life, some people like to say they're "going with the flow" which sounds like detachment, but I'm often suspicious.
Setting goals, maintaining a competitive spirit, having ambition and desire, and investing oneself in certain outcomes seems like a useful and necessary part of being human. But personally I think that joy, detachment and acceptance have to still be experienced on a deeper level. I try (try!) to keep a quality deep in my being that even though I may take certain things very seriously, even though I have certain big desires, I still maintain a certain level of detachment and inner joy apart from that.
I think there's a very fine line here, and your word "balance" speaks to it. Though, I'm not sure if that word quite works for the way I feel about it.
Nice article, Steve
