Creating a Life Lab or Why you should be racing

I often times find myself in situations where I'm asked this question: Why do you race? Why do you put so much into these race? And it is a fair question. The compromise is big. And I don't have any chance of making money with it, so it's certainly not my job. Racing goes on the cost of doing other things those weekends, but in reality many hours, days and nights before.

My usual answer is, that racing makes me feel alive. It makes me feel all the emotions. And the longer the event, the more it feels like a microcosm of life, living through years of emotions in a day or a few hours.

I truly believe that in order to have a rich life, one should aim for as many experiences as possible.

And while this is all true, I guess the bigger one is this one:

Racing and competition for me is my life lab. See, most people almost never experience what they are capable of. They are never pushed to their limits and find out what they are made of. And when they are, it comes as a massive surprise.

I guess the reason why I'm drawn to competitions is that it allows me to overcome difficult situations within the scope of one race. The struggle, the attachment of the struggle, the finding joy, the self doubting, the over ambitiousness, the letting go of everything and just being.

I've set up racing and competition as my life lab. It serves me to learn for the real one: using games and races as a playground to test myself.

Learn about where my focus goes, when things get tough. Understand what I need for myself, when I'm struggling. Understand the voice I need to be for myself when things get tough.

The thing is: in life, situations often feel like life and death: losing a job. losing a relationship. It too often comes with existential crisis.

Many of us never learned how to go through tough times.

Creating a life lab allows to understand what you are made off whiteout the feeling of a life and death situation. In a running race you can safely experience how you talk to yourself when it hurts a lot. What do you really need to get through when it gets hard? What’s the self talk you are giving yourself and what is it you would like to hear? What do you resonate with?

But also, racing gives pride. It gives joy. It gives you learnings. Racing competitions might be the one thing that ticks you on an upward spiral for life. It certainly has for me. Try it.