Competing Youths especially talented in the Competing theme enjoy measuring their performance against that of others and have a great desire to win.
- Strengthsfinder Link: Achiever, Competition
- VIA Link: Perseverance, self regulation, Leadership
Five ways to develop Competition
- You love to compete. There are plenty of opportunities–pick your competition. erhaps the greatest competition is not the one with others, but with yourself. Strive for your personal best. Track your progress using any number of apps. My personal favorite is Joe’s Goals.
- Many say it is not whether you win or loose, but how you play the game. Develop your sportsmanship.
- Many great competitors know their success comes not from raw talent, but their efforts and seeking performance feedback. This, we call the growth mindset.
- Persevere. When the going gets tough, the tough get…GRIT!
- Express your gratitude to those who help you along the way.
Tips for working with students strong in Competition
- These students see many things in life as a game and feel joy when they win. These students hate to lose because they are always striving for first place.
How to help students talented in Competing…
These students may express strong emotions, win or lose. Affirm the feelings, happy or mad, by listening to the emotion. Adults may need to help student work through it. Understand that this emotion give the competitor fuel.
Arrange opportunities for these students to measure progress or success. Introduce the concept of “personal bests” by tracking each student’s best performance, score or achievement to date. This could be something large or could even be an everyday activity, like the most minutes practicing math facts or the most pages read in a week.
Be aware of the many different ways to compete. Know how to set each student up for success. What arena suits each student best– sports, arts, academia, or clubs? Is the student a team or individual competitor? Who can you arrange for the student to compete against to help stretch his or her skills?
Support for Competition
Grit–check out your Grit
Goal setting
How to set goals–Check out Mind Tools plan.
Read more about Growing the Strengths Explorer Theme of Competing from Strengths School
