What’s the matter with comparing?

I have a confession to make: I compare myself to others all the time. How I look. How I eat.  How I am received. And so much more.

I read and hear that we shouldn’t. That we should be happy with who and how we are. Then, on top of feeling inadequate from all the comparing, we also feel guilty for doing something we “shouldn’t” do.

Comparing is a major problem among young girls, who view touched-up images on tictoc and decide they’re too fat, or aren’t good enough in some other sense. According to research, many hurt themselves in an attempt to attain the impossible image they see. Complete self-acceptance and self-love is so important for them to grasp, and so hard for them to do.

Well, I agree wholeheartedly that total self-acceptance is important for young people, and for all of us – a lovely thing we can strive for and attain. But I’m not sure that will eliminate comparison.

We live in a dualistic world – where there’s light, there’s also dark. Where there’s big, there’s also small. In order to understand anything, we need to compare them to other things. Like Einstein and many hippies have said – over and over – it’s all relative!

As I see it, comparing is a problem only when it makes us feel that there’s something wrong with us when there isn’t anything wrong with us. So, perhaps a better question might be: what is right with who I am? What am I good at, even if it sometimes doesn’t work?

 

Quote of the Week

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

– Albert Einstein 

 

To overcome challenges, stop comparing yourself to everyone