Michael Jordan and mental illness

People look at Michael Jordan as a kind of hero. Certainly persevering through difficult circumstances and reaching a pinnacle of achievement seems at first glance to be an admirable pursuit. However, there is another way of looking at his relentless competitive spirit, as someone who has a mental illness.

Jordan's drive and competitiveness are well-known and documented. Jordan was obsessed with winning. Such an obsession is not a fertile ground for happiness. It's a kind of relentlessness that involves pushing oneself to a mental breaking point and refusing to accept defeat. Each failure doesn't become mere gristle on the fire of personal self-development, but a reason to reproach oneself for not achieving an unrealistic standard.

Victory and competitiveness against others cannot provide a true happiness, because a victory in a zero-sum situation only avoids a negative and doesn't create a positive. To win by beating others is a hollow victory.

So, Jordan is wrong about what he's chosen to focus his life on. A competitive mindset can never lead to happiness, because it isn't a proper pursuit for a human being. A zero-sum competition gives up our sense of meaning to our opponent, who defines whether we have meaning only in their defeat. The locus of our happiness should be within us, within our adherence to our own authenticity, and not within someone else's relative deficiencies or failures as compared to our own.

Happiness can only come from a sanguine and calm embrace of expressiveness, when your life is a unique painting of events that expresses your inner self in a satisfying way. The artistry and tenderness behind such expressiveness really cannot fit in competitive sports.

Many of the structures of our society are oriented around competitiveness, and in being so structured, they are not optimized at all for the individual's pursuit of happiness.