Constantly comparing yourself to others is unhealthy at all ages. I say all ages because remember how it made you feel as a child when your parents compared you to your best friend who was very smart or your well behaved cousin or one of your friends who they thought was an angel but you knew otherwise… Yeah? It’s still unhealthy now as it was back then but this time you’re doing it to yourself.
When you compare yourself to others, you start pointing out your flaws, all the things you haven’t done compared to them and how much “better” other people are compared to you which is very destructive behaviour.
Comparison is the death of joy – Theodore Roosevelt
Continuous comparisons can make you forget the good things you have in your life, this leads to: envy, low self-confidence, resentment and general unhappiness. None of these feelings have helped anyone achieve anything but it’s been happening since the beginning of time. Due to the rise of social media, we think we see every aspect of people’s lives, in reality, we really don’t as social media is a faux representation of life. Remember, people only show you the good parts of their lives so you shouldn’t compare yourself or feel bad for not having what they have. You don’t see the struggles they’ve had, all the times they have wanted to give up and what they did to get there. You only see what they want you to see. The same way you compare yourself to others, is probably the same way someone is comparing themselves to you; see how crazy that sounds? So instead of comparing, you should focus on yourself and turn those negative feelings into motivation to do better for yourself.
Why I stopped comparing myself to others:
As time has gone on, I have learnt to focus on me and not compare my journey to anyone else because it is futile and stops me from celebrating the most important person in my life, myself. I know Rome wasn’t built in a day and my time will come as long as I work hard and focus. Great things take time and no one has achieved success overnight (unless they’ve won the EuroMillions but then again that’s luck not an achievement) so I keep working on myself. For example if I decided to compare myself with other bloggers or even Youtubers who get loads of traffic on their websites and have thousands of followers, getting 1000 views per day etc then my 1000 views in my last post would feel meaningless, it would turn into something negative and I would be upset that I wasn’t at their ‘level.’
Regardless of how things look on social media and in everyday life, no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and has their down-days which I don’t see. Over the years I have become more appreciative of myself and grateful for what I have which has helped me want to celebrate me more because if you can’t celebrate yourself who is going to celebrate you? Lastly I find inspiration from looking at others instead of being jealous because jealousy has never helped anyone achieve anything ever. So what’s the point of me wasting my time?
As I said in the title, If you don’t compare, you don’t compete, so don’t compare. Sometimes we’re our harshest critics, this can limit our perception of ourselves and makes us put others on an undeserved pedestal which is why comparisons are so detrimental. So stop comparing and focus on the most important person in your life, yourself.
Photo taken by me in Miami, Florida – September 2016.
5 Comments
You nailed it we are always comparing ourselves to others ignoring our own uniqueness.
Thanks for another inspiring write up.
It’s very true! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Two years ago I published a similar ‘comparing ourselves to others’ story. An observation from being surrounded by a lot of people, of different ages, shapes, etc. A very common topic. Good expressive write up.
It is definitely a very common topic.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.