Narcissus was by all accounts a very handsome boy. When he rejected the advances of Echo a nypmh who wanted him, his punishment was he would be consumed by his own beauty.Day after day Narcissus would spend countless hours staring at his reflection in any body of water he encountered. One day he was crouched over a pool of water admiring himself when he fell in the pool and drowned. It was at this very spot a flower bloom...thus giving it the name narcissus and laying the foundation for the psychological disorder Sigmund Freud wrote about in his 1914 paper Narcissim: An Introduction.
I was an extremely talent athlete as a child. I played beyond the expectations of what a person my age was suppose to do. My mother has told the story many times that I ran before I walked. I learned to run hurdles at 5 years old and by age 11 was a national record holder, junior Olympian and countless other accolades that had been bestow upon me. I once was paid money after a little league football game because my coach felt that even though the team as a whole had given a sub par performance, my achievements on the field that day warranted him praising me separately with $10 dollars. It didn't mean much to me till my brother began to explain that I was now a professional athlete and that I couldn't play high school or go to college football. I cried and began to searched high and low for my coach trying to give that money back. I didn't want to be a pro (at least not at that moment) I just wanted to play sports. For me it was the delight I received when I stepped on the field in helmet, shoulder pads, cleats with my friends. We played that very same game everyday after school in the projects in Centerville Illinois. Wasn't much difference, we played for fun, having grown up together we just enjoyed being around one another. Winning wasn't on our minds.....but on the minds of those around us, NOW THAT WAS DIFFERENT! I love my brother Kettrell for so many reasons, he taught me to hurdle, he was the one who also told me I wasn't an amateur anymore too (I haven't forgot LOL). He also taught me that I could do anything I set my mind to! I think back to an incident when in the projects he would take me around to race other kids like a race horse..(did he bet money I don't know). They even called me Seattle Slew( famous race horse) because of my knees..( don't you dare laugh at me). Once I raced a girl who was visiting her family from out of town and she beat me. I went home and ate a sweet pickle(my spinach) and I came back and beat her the second time. Did that sweet pickle help me?.. NO WAY..what did was his confidence in me! I believe at that moment is when my narcissist attitude began to develop! I wasn't suppose to lose EVER!
I feel so much success early on can eventually lead to this mentality. Its a thin line between being competitive and being conceited. I grew to be conceited more so than competitive. It was about winning, getting up in the morning at 6am to do a road run, or doing 500 push ups and sit ups at night was just the details to ensure I DIDN'T LOSE! Those who I did lose to in my eyes were cheating(drugs) so I understood I was still BETTER.
When I watch sports on the TV, I don't see athletes performing to the best of their abilities or enjoying the sport itself. What I see is narcissistic men carrying on like children who are looking for praise and admiration from those whom have told them they are better than the rest. Certain individuals have become the by product of a narcissistic society that emphasizes winning over anything else. Case and point Michael Jordan, it is been rumored that he is competitive in every aspect of his life. He gambles on everything, because in his eyes he cant lose! Floyd Mayweather is in the same category, he explemifies this! Everything about him is better, I always win, I cant lose!
Now as a former athlete I understand there needs to be an attitude where you have confidence in yourself , but what happens when you are no longer an athlete? What happens when that win by all means carries over into your personal life? With your significant other, colleagues, children, friends...when does the competition turn off. When you do you feel that you don't have to be better or compete with everyone and everything in your life?\
Kobe isn't Kobe the elite basketball player only on the court, that instinct to win I am sure spills over into home and every other area he ventures into. Lebron desires to win, but I am sure goes home or hangs out with friends and maintains that killer instinct!
The fact is we are born into a narcissistic society, we are raised around narcissistic people, we have narcissistic friends and they often times further our narcissistic ideas about our selves. The end result is a house, a school, a street, a town, a state, a country, a government and its citizens wearing the narcissistic badge like a crown while at the same time trying to project an image of cohesiveness, comradery, companionship and a sense of community. You cant go right and left, you cant go up and down, you cant be hot and cold....its either you are a team player or you are a team slayer but you cant be both! Winning is great but at the expense of losing the fundamental reason we play the game, that's not the WINNING ATTITUDE we want the young athletes to accept! Unless of course you want a team full of narcissist. THERE ISN'T AN "I" IN TEAM!!!!!!
GET AKB FIT!!!
"TEACHING A HEALTHY APPROACH TO A HAPPY EXISTENCE"
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