What am I talking about? It’s something we all do – myself included. But yet it doesn’t really benefit us as much as we think it might.
That’s comparing ourselves to other people.
Whether that’s at home, work or in social situations. He’s got more money than me, she’s got a better body than me, her hair is so nice, he’s got more twitter followers than me, my ex has got more YouTube subscribers than me and so on and so on.
When we compare ourselves to others we lose sight of where the real comparison should be – and that’s comparing ourselves to ourselves from yesterday.
The only thing you can control is you. How you show up. What you do. How you behave. Focussing on that is all that’s really important.
Sure, you might say – you want to compare yourself to your competitors and see how you stack up against them, what they are doing and where they are at.
But really you (we) should only be looking to improve and compare ourselves to how we once were. Is there an improvement or a decline? Are we living to our capabilities. We don’t know what’s gone on behind closed doors for that other person or company. We only know what we know about our situation.
By focussing on others, you lose energy that you should be focussing on yourself.
So what, that hire that came in after you got promoted before you. Big deal. Thinking about it, comparing your situations won’t really help. Focus on you and what you can do to improve and the promotion will eventually be yours – either at the current place of work or somewhere else.
I know all this and yet still I do it. I can’t help it sometimes. So here’s the trick. When it happens (and it will) – first recognise that you’re doing it. Then go easy on yourself and remember what’s important. Just work on yourself, work hard, smart and consistently and leave the comparisons to others with more time on their hands.
What do you think? Do you find yourself comparing yourself to other people? How does it make you feel? Comment below, thanks.
