I think this lack of competitiveness has caused me no end of problems, though, since it means I lack a major source of motivation that many people tap into to give them a boost. You can probably guess I’ve never been very sporty, since a key part of the motivation for doing most sports is competitiveness (even if it’s only competitiveness with yourself), and the “anti-motivation” of being faced with all the hard work involved counteracts what little shred of motivation might have been present!

I’m not even motivated to beat my own “personal best” in anything, either, which means a lot of motivational tricks don’t work on me since they partly rely on this kind of motivation. It really is a pain in the backside to be like this, although I suppose the flipside is that at least I don’t get as disappointed as most people do when I do lose!! My other half is incredibly competitive and I’ve seen how devastated he can be when he doesn’t perform at his best. I’ve literally never felt that in my life. However I have felt a profound sense of disappointment in myself for being generally crap, and I know a large part of that is due to these motivation problems I have, so it’s a very mixed blessing!!