Losing for Fun and Other Fun Insights with the Presurfer

I had one of those rare opportunities yesterday. I got to spend two hours with one of my favorite bloggers - one of the few whose sense of fun is as refined as it is eclectic.

The Presurfer blogs for the fun of it. Really. He spends his early mornings on the web, searching for fun, sharing his hard-won discoveries with anyone who clicks in his direction, because he has fun doing it. He has fun finding fun. Because of the web, he can share that fun. Which makes it all that much more uniquely fun for him. And for 1500 unique visitors a day.

The Presurfer, as any one who visits his remarkable website can attest to, is a private man. What I learned, having met him in person, is that he a man whose very life is focused on fun.

And there we were, two very different men from different parts of the world and walks of life and also runs of life, differently, and yet as completely focused on fun.

The Presurfer is an athlete. My athleticism is limited to long walks. Competitive runner, former national table tennis champion, skydiver, he has learned to do it all for fun. Of the many gentle and profound insights we shared, the one that struck clearest for me began when he talked about how being national champion stopped being fun for him because he "really didn't like losing."

So he taught himself to lose. A little. Just little enough to relax. To stand back. To let it go by, if it had to. To enjoy the game again.

And his game better! His whole game. More fun. More, and more meaningful victories.

In order to have fun, he had to learn to lose. Think maybe that's what competition is all about? Not so much getting to win a lot, but also about learning to lose a little?