A - Accepting the Challenge

When I was young I never believed that I was competitive at all. I hated sports. Mostly because I was

(and still am) terrible at them. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out that I am actually very competitive -- once you get me on my own turf.

One year my mother insisted that I enter a poem in a contest sponsored by the Poetry Society of Colorado. I entered and won first place. That started me on entering their contests regularly. I ended up challenging myself to enter every contest every year. I won regularly. And I found my competitive chops.

I found that my favorite competitor was accepting challenges against myself. Proving to myself over and over that I could do it. For someone who grew up with nearly zero self-esteem. It has been tremendously empowering personally.

So here I go again -- challenging myself to write a blog post six days a week for the month of April as part of the A-Z blogging challenge. http://stevenchapmanwriter.com/?p=1328