STOP COMPETING AND START WINNING - By: - Annette Huygens-Tholen -

Did you know that by flying in a V formation, geese increase their flying range by 71% more than if each bird were to fly alone?

Successful athletes by their very nature are competitive. Some play sport for the love of it, but for any top-level athlete, they need to be competitive and to have that competitive edge. Its how you deal with competition, how you thrive on it or are challenged by it that will determine the results you will get.

In order to be the best, athletes look for a competitive edge - the difference that can make the difference between winning and losing. This can mean not giving anything away, no sharing of ideas, and keeping everything to oneself - because we don't want our competitors to have that edge!

Though being competitive can spur one on to greater success, it can be less effective in the business arena where success and winning is build on collaboration, networking and support. Let me explain.

I started in competition very young, at nine years old, with gymnastics, and then later became involved with volleyball and beach volleyball. I realised my dream of becoming an Olympian when I represented Australia in Sydney, 2000.

I've always been fiercely independent. Even as recently as 2006, I prided myself on my independence believing that I had achieved so much on my own. Even getting to the 2000 Olympic Games, I remember thinking specifically, "I did this, and I did this myself.

I was independent and I was competitive, even off the volleyball court. It was a struggle for me to enjoy the success of others, including that of my friends. Rather than being happy for them, I was envious when my friends experienced success and I didn't. I was creating, in my mind, a sense of "scarcity of success," as if there were only so much to go around. The problem with this thinking was that the more I resented their success, the more I was focusing on my own lack of success-all this did was produce disempowering pictures and feelings I continually sent to my unconscious mind.

According to the Law of Attraction that was what I would create more of...lack of success.

"If They Can Do It, I Can Do It"

I now come from a sense of abundance so I actually enjoy seeing friends, and even strangers, succeed. If they have attained something I haven't, I now think it means that, "If they can do it, I can do it!" As a direct result of changing my thinking, I feel much more empowered to go for it, because I choose to believe there is room for everybody.

Imagining a limitation on success in your mind will create that limitation in your results. Being competitive and independent also limited me in other ways. My foolish pride and independence stopped me from asking for help. I thought I could do it on my own but no one has achieved greatness on their own. I did work in teams and was a valued team player, at times even a leader within organizations I worked for, yet I wasn't enrolling people in my dream.

I'm now an entrepreneur constantly developing my business as a coach, a speaker, and an internet marketer. There is no way I could do all that without help. I enjoy finding more and more people to support and assist my business with their skills that I don't have. Through business and social networks, I meet people who know someone who, in turn, know someone, etc. I have become more confident in asking help and asking questions to learn what I don't yet know.

How can you build your network and create a team to succeed in life?

About the Author

Annette Huygens Tholen is a former int’l beach volleyball player and Olympian. She experienced the difficulties of transition from sport and is now a Master Results Coach and Int’l speaker using her learning’s and experience to empower athletes to reproduce emotional and financial success in life after sport. Her book, Success beyond Sport, will be launched in January 2010. For more information on how to successfully transition after sport, visit http://www.annetteffect.com.

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