The Rights & Wrongs Of Comparison: How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
Social Comparison: Benefits And Risks Of Comparing Yourself To Others
If there is one word of wisdom I can offer you today it’s this: stop comparing yourself to those around you.
The days of keeping up with the Jones or the Smiths are dead and gone. Stop looking at the other guys car, because if you knew the truth of it all, you’d probably be glad to know that you don’t have to pay his monthly lease bill.
I have seen it time and time again – especially in tough economic times – the shedding of top end vehicles and multi-million dollar mansions because the vehicles and properties were never owned by the occupants in the first place. They were owned by the bank.
So stop comparing yourself with others and their stuff.
Personal Comparison
The only person you should be comparing yourself with is you and your last week, month or year’s performance.
Here are some questions to prime your personal comparison pump –
- How far have I come?
- What skills have I added to my resource in that time frame?
- How much more money have I saved?
- How much bad debt have I reduced?
- How many credit cards have I cut up?
- What have I produced in the past twelve months?
- What new mentors have I added to my circle of influence?
- What new friends have I added to my circle of peers?
- How many people have I positively influenced?
- How much money have I given to your church or charity?
- How much time or effort have I volunteered for no charge?
- Have I grown as a person?
- Am I more in love with my spouse and my children than last year?
But don’t’ spend one minute on a comparison analysis with someone else. It’s a total waste of time.
And as someone once told me, ‘If we all put our problems into a hat and then picked out of it someone else’s problems, we’d all ask for our own back.’
Dissatisfied Satisfaction
Learn to live in a state of dissatisfied satisfaction. Enjoy today, but continue to dream and hope for a better tomorrow.
But whatever you do, don’t waste today worrying about what you could have done yesterday. Learn from yesterday, but don’t stay there. Do better today than you did then, and you will be assured of a better tomorrow.
Make it your focus to only compare your today efforts with yesterday – with a constant mission to improve. This will set you up for some hugely successful tomorrows.
And remember this, that to compare yourself with others will only create one thing – despair. Don’t go there! It’s like comparing apples to oranges.
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