A mate of mine was teaching his son to play Monopoly this past weekend. His son is seven, and so the rest of us, his “uncles”, in our WhatsApp group, were sending all-caps instructions to be relayed by his dad. You know. “BUY ALL THE DARK BLUE ONES” and “FORGET THE STATIONS…THEY’RE A TRAP.”
As you do. Because seven is easily old enough for him to be slaughtering people at Monopoly, we agreed.
Here’s the thing. Sometimes, I can be a bit over-competitive in a way that isn’t terribly good for me. It’s taken me 41 years to write that sentence with a degree of self-awareness. In understatement terms it’s like how Genghis Khan was a bit greedy. Or how Achilles suffered with occasional ankle problems.
When I’m playing squash, for example, I’ll still catch myself thinking nasty things about my opponent. I’m not saying I wish them dead. I mean, that would be PSYCHOTIC. Right? I just…I feel very very very nasty about them. Indeed.
There are evolutionary reasons for competition. I get that. But in 2021, being over-competitive is so bad for everyone concerned. Never mind crying over games of Monopoly. Of course, that’s never actually happened. Certainly not to me, after too much alcohol in my early twenties. I mean. You’d never live it down. Would you?
BUT IF YOU HAVE EVER CRIED OVER A GAME OF MONOPOLY, MAYBE THERE IS MORE TO IT. Ever think about that? I mean, did you? Eh?
Take my free, six-minute meditation on over-competitiveness here. And for God’s sake, mate. Chill out.
M
p.s. Feel free to check out my archive of free yoga classes here!
p.p.s Monopoly is the work of el diablo.
p.p.p.s Really. But if you know someone who might benefit from a sympathetic yoga teacher to help them through such issues, maybe they could do worse than check out MattDavisYoga.com. Because I gather that the dude has…been there.
