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.