Why you shouldn’t compare your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20
Theodore Roosevelt once said : “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Everyone knows that comparing with others, especially in the era of social media (where most people are presenting often fabricated and idealistic picture of their lives) is bad for you. Yet, most of us can’t help but compare. Jobs, partners, looks, children, houses, cars, lives. And even though we all know that in gratidue lies happiness, it’s hard to unsee all the pictures, videos and status updates that pop up into our face every time we touch our phone. Which is all the time nowadays.
But hey, its human nature and we all like to look around and compare our life with someone who is more successful than us, richer than us, better than us. Being aware of your surroundings is normal, and sometimes it can be motivating. But what happens when we compare ourselves daily? And we start to feel inferior? Like a failure? This means that this behaviour is sabotaging your success! Sounds like a virtual nightmare, right?
There is a way out. Have you ever heard of a saying: “Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 20”?
The biggest problem with comparing your success with someone else’s is that you never know what chapter of their life you are comparing yourself with.
Oftentimes, especially on social media, you only see what others want you to see. People don’t post a picture of the day they failed an exam, they only post the one of the day they passed! People won’t share their struggles, their bad days. People will show their successes and achievements, because they do not want you to see the other 19 chapters — only chapter 20! Or they will fake all the previous chaptes until they actually succeed.
So don’t dwell on other people’s stories. Only pay attention to them if they are inspiring. If they will help you to keep working towards your goal.
The only person you need to compare yourself to is yourself: compare today’s page with the one from yesterday.
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