I was surprised when I went to my son's first baseball game. No one kept score, and no one knew the score. The purpose of the match was not to beat the other team, but to teach the kids the sport. The effort was placed on helping individuals do the best they could. At the end of the playoff, everyone was a winner—and it made this father's heart proud.
My son's game got me thinking. Thirty years ago I lived to win awards. "Work hard, reach your goal, and claim success," my dad would say. As a young boy, I believed that medals, certificates, and trophies were very much to be desired. In my freshman year of high school I made up my mind that I wanted to be valedictorian when I graduated from 12th grade, and at the end of my senior year, I had attained that goal. In fact, by the time I headed off for college, I'd accumulated an abundance of memorabilia from having won talent shows, achievement awards, 4—H events, and academic competitions.
But the effort I put into all this hard competition eventually exhausted me mentally and emotionally. My college years became a time of deep searching. For one thing, this was my first extended stay away from home, and I made a number of life-changing decisions. One of these decisions resulted from the fact that I found I had no more desire for acclaim. So I resolved never again to pursue an award just for the sake of winning an award.
