During a brief discussion with a friend of mine some days back, he made a very insightful comment that provoked a deep thought within me. He said that "if you compare your first chapter with someone else's 10th chapter, you will live your life believing that you are not making progress." Your life is not supposed to be modelled or fashioned after someone's life. In this era, it seems like comparison has been on the increase because of what a lot of people are exposed to on the social media. But what they fail to understand is that there are dangers in comparison. Here, we shall take a look at the dangers and why you need to avoid comparison.
The first danger of comparison that we will look at is; it destroys self-worth. Each time you begin to compare yourself with others, what you are trying to say is that your worth is not up to par with them. During comparison, you tend to subconsciously focus on the person's strength, while consolidating on your own weakness, thereby believing that you are inadequate and not as worth as the person. It is true that you can be motivated by someone and by their successes, but do not let them become a yardstick for you. When you constantly measure yourself and your work-rate with what you perceive in others, you might lose confidence in yourself and your abilities. You have to understand that you are not inferior to them, so do not make yourself feel so.
Another reason you need to stay clear of comparison is that it prevents personal growth. If you are too busy and too focused on what someone else does, how will you grow yourself? You need to take your eyes from someone's destination and focus on your own journey if you want to arrive at your destination. Imagine when you compare yourself with someone who is far ahead of you, who has achieved a lot, it might become counterproductive because it might discourage you from taking actions towards your own goal - you may feel the person's achievements have become unattainable. Imagine someone who is an amateur runner comparing themself with Usain Bolt who has achieved many gold medals in running, the person might just end up being discouraged by Usain's record. Learn to focus on your own life's journey.
The next danger of comparison is that it can cause anxiety and stress. When you think that the world is revolving around someone else, it may create the feeling within you that you are not doing enough. This may trigger anxiety and put you under unnecessary stress. There is a kind of pressure that would always want you to "keep up" when you compare yourself with others, and this is the fastest way to weary yourself and make you burnout. You should not allow yourself to feel like you are falling behind or that you are not succeeding simply because of what you see in others or what social media has presented to you, so that you will not end up putting yourself through unnecessary pressure.
Comparison can also damage your relationship with people. For people in a relationship for example, you have to understand the ability of your partner and their strengths. Trying to compare your partner with what you see from someone else's relationship will be very unwise because they are two entirely different people. More so, it can break the wall of the relationship. There is no need to expect your relationship to be modelled after what you see from others because you are different people. Do not allow so much expectations to deny you of a good relationship from your partner.
The last danger of comparison that we will look at is that it triggers negative competition. When you begin to compare yourself with others, you may begin to feel that they are in competition with you, and then you will begin to take it as such. This kind of competition also brings envy and jealousy, especially when you cannot match up with the person. You have to understand that everyone has their own unique and individual destiny, and that you are not in competition with them. Focus on what you want to achieve and on your dream, then you will see that you are actually making considerable progress in life.
Thanks for reading
