“Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.” ~Unknown
The Compassion Games maintains a Leaderboard where everyone can see the results of what each team has reported during the games. We count the number of reports, number of volunteers, hours of service, dollars raised for local causes, and the number of people served. The reports are submitted to the Compassion Report Map and then tallied and put on the leaderboard.
Does this mean there’s one winner of the Compassion Games? No! Everybody wins. The Compassion Games is an infinite game which means the more people play, the more people win!
Then why have a Leaderboard? Because beyond winning and losing, measuring and improving our results does matter. Taking the time to reflect upon what we have accomplished adds a very important dimension to our thinking, speaking, doing, and playing. The Games are not about winning or avoiding losing. It is the journey of our playing, not the destination, that matters.
Our results can be an annual benchmark for measuring our collective capacity to play the games and develop the skills we need to learn to treat each other, our earth, and ourselves with the utmost love and compassion. In the end we are only competing with ourselves. Ultimately, the games are about looking at the ways we are in the world and challenging ourselves to become the ways we want to be, to be living examples. As Gandhi said,
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”
We are challenging ourselves to move beyond our “comfort zones” and into our “stretch zone” to expand to make the changes that need to be made to make the world the way we want it. The Compassion Report Map lets us read the stories about what we are actually doing.
For me personally, being compassionate is not being soft, it’s being real. It’s going sometimes to the very depths of who we are and questioning ourselves in profound ways. Each year the games has challenged me in surprisingly creative and meaningful ways. It’s very much like going on a journey in which you set out to go west. What you soon discover is that no matter how far you go there’s always more west to go!
Be Prepared to Be Surprised
There’s no doubt that organizing the compassion games is one of the most exciting and challenging things I’ve ever been a part of. The games include many important dimensions about learning to work together including teamwork, strategy, adapting to difficulties, dealing with failure, dealing with success, sacrificing individual glory for team success, hard work, discipline, and the value of practice. These are the very skills that we are seeking to amplify in the games. So when you check out the Compassion Report Map and the Leaderboard look to see what we have done for ourselves, each other, and the world. Look beyond who won to see how together we are all winning!
“I am in a competition with no one. I run my own race. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone, in any way, shape, or form. I just aim to improve, to be better than I was before. That’s me and I’m free.” ~Unknown