I am competitive in just about every facet of my life. From participating in silly games during pep rallies to coaching athletes as a football and soccer coach, I want to win all of the time. I don’t do well with losing and it has taken me most of my 35 years on this earth to be okay with “just doing your best is good enough.” Now that I’ve got a six year old son playing soccer and a four year old daughter taking ballet classes, I find myself biting my tongue from time to time and reassuring them (and myself) that ‘just having fun’ and ‘being a good teammate’ is what’s most important. Before children, I would’ve never considered any objective superior to winning, no matter the challenge.
Source: The Value of Failure in the Classroom – The Effortful Educator