Stop Comparing Yourself to Others, Claim Your Greatness!
By Daisy Wright.
Stop comparing yourself to others. That is, on the assumption that it’s something you often do. Do you find yourself saying things like:
“She always seem to have it all together; what’s the matter with me?”
“He gets all the attention in meetings; why I can’t I?”
“Why did she get the promotion over me? We have the same qualifications.”
Have you ever said any of the above, or something that close? We all do, at some point or another. We should stop these comparisons. Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken”.
While reading a Fast Company blog post recently, “How I Learned to Stop Comparing Myself to Others and Love My Own Ideas” it brought back memories of the poem Desiderata. One particular line says, “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” Isn’t that the truth? When we begin to compare ourselves to others, it makes us feel less about ourselves. Shouldn’t we be spending time valuing our uniqueness? Paraphrasing Meredith Fineman in the article, “In order to succeed, you have to be the best you.”
It is a mistake to compare yourself to others. Why? Because you really don’t know what’s happening in the other person’s life. All that portrayal of having it all together could be a farce. The Fast Company article suggests that, “…when we compare ourselves to others, whether it be a marriage, a career, or a specific achievement, we are only comparing ourselves to our perception of this person.” That’s right. We are making comparisons against things we don’t know or don’t have enough information about.
During the coming week, instead of comparing yourself to others, reflect on these words from Desiderata: “Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”
Here’s my personal message to you today: Opportunities are lost on those who spend time comparing themselves to others. Quit doing so, embrace your uniqueness, and get ready to play it big and win!
Source: Career Musings