My purpose is not your purpose…and that’s ok!
My dad co-owned a sailboat when I was growing up, for the simple reason that he loved to sail.
He registered for sailboat races for the whole summer – Saturday races and a Wednesday night race. We raced against hardcore races, competitive and determined.
But we didn’t care all that much about competing. (Good thing…we didn’t often finish near the front!) Registering for the races was, fundamentally, a motivation to make sure you pushed away the dock and sailed twice a week.
The race organizers probably weren’t thinking of people like my dad when they organized the races – they were creating opportunities for competition, fundamentally. But it didn’t matter at all if their purpose and ours were different.
Get what you want and need out of the experiences you choose. Even if what you get out of it isn’t what was intended.