As someone who has had to learn the hard way to compete only for herself, I'm here to tell you it can be done. You just have to change your mindset; if you don't, you will forever be a hamster in the NPC wheel, allowing others to determine when you can run out of your cage.
There are politics. There is subjectivity. There is favoritism. As Dina pointed out, those three factors are evident in almost every sport, every job, every faction of life. It's just that the more subjective an activity is, the more evident these three things become when determining who wins the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--whether it be in a sport or a career or a social group.
I would say train to win...aim for first place...reach sky high...grab the top prize. But this isn't an industry in which those statements can become reality just with hard work and skill. Because our placings aren't determined by hard work and/or skill and are instead based upon a very superficial, mere shell of our existence, we have to accept the fact that we become winners simply by reaching our own goals. Thus, first place truly is icing on the proverbial cake.
I've won. I've lost. I've placed in between. So I know firsthand that in the end, you have to compete for you or you will lose your sanity in the NPC/IFBB. Until there is a solid rubric of judging standards and weighted percentages of judges' expectations, we can rarely expect to see fair and consistent judging across the board of this organization.
The more subjective an activity is, the more objective the judging criteria must be. Change that, and you change the role that politics and favoritism play, no matter the activity.
Think about it this way: there's no true money in this anyway, at least not the kind that will help you to invest in your future, to build a retirement safety net, to sustain a higher expectation of living. In the end, it's all for the accolades, which mostly occur within. The way I see it, my self-worth and pride are bigger, more meaningful prizes than any trophy.
