It’s a fact that when we are born we have become yet another member of the human race. But at the same time we have entered a long distance event, not a 100-meter sprint, also called the human race

Our competitors?

Ourselves – and our last performance.

So let’s delve a little deeper into how you can position yourself, all your life, to win your human race.

1. Know You

There are so many human beings living on planet earth who are trying either to live their lives like someone else or trying to fill a role that has been ‘expected of them’ by others.

This is why it is imperative that you make a study of you.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Who am I?
• What are my gifts and natural talents?
• What do I love doing?
• Wherein lies my passion?
• What was I born for?
• Whom can I effectively serve with my gifts?
• What is my calling?
• What task needs to be done by myself that cannot be filled by another?
• What do I like about myself?
• What do I love about myself?
• If time and money were in abundance, how would I spend my days?
• What gets me excited?
• What do I dream of being and doing?
• What goals do I have for my life?

This is your two-legged race where you must keep your eyes on the finishing line, keeping within your lane, all the way to success and fulfillment.

2. Know Your Purpose

Life is not a five-minute event nor a one-minute dash.

It takes a lifetime to live a life filled with purpose.

It is a long-distance marathon where only those who maintain optimum fitness in spirit, soul, and body will at the end of their days be able to say, ‘I have run the race and I am well pleased.’

For a life to be lived on purpose it must have a purpose, a reason, a goal, and a point of significance.

This purpose will lift you above the surface of mediocrity bursting full of life and embellished with a spirit of excellence.

Ask yourself the question: For what purpose have I been born?

Don’t rush to get the answer – but as you make it your purpose to unwrap your purpose the answer will come, and life for you will be lived with a great sense of meaning and momentum.

3. Know Your Contribution

One of the highlights of the church picnics that I would attend as a young child was entering an event called the three-legged race.

This is where two individuals have one of their legs joined together by rope or other material and the aim of the race is for the two to run as one in a synchronized fashion.

Life is for living for you, but not just by you.

No man or woman is an island. So, in order to win in life we must learn to co-operate with others and to contribute into the lives of others.

And there are times when we come together as a team to complete projects that one person on their own could never achieve.

This is where there needs to be a spirit of co-operation  – not just the spirit of competition.

But with this alignment there must be a working together. For if one partner doesn’t flow in complete agreement with the other the results, as witnessed in many three-legged races, can be disastrous.

4. Know Your Craft

Once you have identified your purpose, have become aware of your unique gifts and talents – that is where you must begin to shape, mold and mature those qualities.

This is how you know your craft. You study, you practice, you repeat, you analyze, and you evaluate. You take that which is good in your life and make it excellent through constancy of improvement.

Rusty performances can only be overcome through the ongoing practice of use.

Don’t be satisfied with being just good. Strive to be the very best that you can possibly be. Don’t allow amateur status to be your hallmark. Approach all that you do with the mindset of a professional.

5. Know

Hurdles are a part of any human race.

So what do you do with hurdles? How do you deal with opposition? What response are you going to give when unexpected detours appear?

Are you going to allow them to derail you, or lure you off your track? Or are you going to learn how to jump? And how high are you going to jump?

The person who knows who they are, what they’ve been born for  – no matter what is thrown in their path – will continue to move forward step by step in life.

They will rise above disasters and disappointments every time – stronger and more resilient than ever  – to face another day as they continue to win their human race.’

How are you progressing in your human race?

Motivational Memo: To win your human race – never lose sight of your personal finish line.

Peter G. James Sinclair is in the ‘heart to heart’ resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they’ve been created to become. Receive your free copy of his latest eBook Personal Success Blueprint at – http://www.motivationalmemo.com and add him on Twitter @PeterGJSinclair – today!

Photo courtesy of: MiGuel

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In many situations in life – especially within a company or within a family – co-operation is a much more powerful principle than competition.

We all have a competitive instinct or drive, though, and many games make the most of this to ramp up the level of fun, excitement and involvement. (Sports, multi-player computer games, and board games all have “winners” and “losers”.)

As well as enjoying being competitive in game and play situations, we can use our natural competitive bent to give ourselves an edge when we’re trying to make gains in our personal life.

I’m going to give just three examples, but I’m sure you can come up with more areas of your life to apply this to (let’s hear them in the comments!)

Eating More Healthily

Perhaps you and your partner, or you and your friend, have tried out various healthy eating or weight-loss plans in the past. More likely than not, these haven’t lasted too long. One of you feels low on will-power, says “Forget it, I’m having a slice of cake!” – and the other person caves in too.

It could go very differently if you introduced an element of healthy competitiveness. I’d caution against competing on something like actual weight lost, as this is influenced by factors such as metabolism, gender and how overweight you were to begin with. Similarly, don’t compete on how far you can both run, or how heavy the weights you can lift are.

Instead, set yourself some competitive goals to reach like:

• Who can hit five portions of fruit-and-veg a day, every day, for a week?
• Who can go for a week without chocolate (or alcohol/cheese/etc…)
• Who can stick to their planned exercise sessions for a month?
• …and so on.

You get the idea. Compete on things which are under your direct control. You’ll be amazed how this can really boost your will-power: knowing that the other person is heading off for their gym session can get you up off the sofa and raring to go – you don’t want to lose!

Saving Money

You might want to do this with a spouse, friend or colleague. The idea is to see who can spend the least or save the most over a period of time. As with eating healthily or losing weight, compete on things which involve meeting targets that you’ve agreed with one another (you don’t necessarily need to have exactly the same targets).

For example:

• Who can go for a week without buying any food out?
• Who can last a whole weekend without spending money?
• How long can you manage without spending a cent on entertainment?
• Who can meet their savings goal for three months running?

As with healthy eating, this can turn something that might otherwise seem like hard work into something fun. Trent writes about this in Making Frugality a Game on The Simple Dollar (a personal finance blog), saying:

If you can turn frugality into a mutual challenge, you can turn something that you might otherwise view as drudgery into something quite fun.

Writing a Novel

There’s an often-quoted adage that “everyone has at least one book in them” – and you may well feel that’s true for yourself. A lot of people have a long-cherished ambition to write a novel, but they never manage to get around to it – or they get started and quickly run out of steam.

Back in 2007, I took part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where participants take on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. You “win” simply by reaching the word count: it’s an easy measure, and no-one’s going to complain about the quality of your writing, or say that what you’ve written isn’t very novel-shaped.

The desire to get your name on the winners’ list may be enough for you, but if you want to take the competition to a new level, get your friends involved. I wrote alongside @NickMB and @pddluke, and there was a lot of friendly but determined (certainly on my part!) competition.

(I “won”, by the way, pipping them both to the 50,000 word post )

Those are just three big goals which many people have: all of which could be achieved faster (and even more enjoyably!) with a bit of good-natured competition. What goals do you have that you’re not progressing towards as fast as you’d like? Who might you challenge to a competition?

Learn How To Get That Competitve Edge Here!

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