When you judge the quality of your sleep last night, you’re comparing it to other nights. When you judge the heaviness of the morning’s commute, you’re comparing it to other commutes. When you judge your lunch, you’re comparing it to other lunches. When you judge how your day was, you’re comparing it to other days.

Isn’t it logical that when you judge yourself, you’re comparing yourself to other people? When you judge your appearance, your intelligence, your success, your finances, your skills, and any other aspect of yourself, you’re probably comparing what you have with what other people have.

That’s a losing game. You can’t win it. You can’t consistently feel good about yourself when you (like all of us) will always be stronger in one area than another person, and weaker in that same area than someone else. If you’re the top salesperson in your division, there’s always someone in another division or another company who’s selling even more, making more money, racing up the career ladder even faster.

Rather than trying to be the best, the most successful, the thinnest, the most attractive, or whatever quality you’re seeking, you can drop the game entirely! The famous dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov has often been called “the best” male dancer in ballet, but he deliberately avoids getting swept up in that losing game. He focuses on his similarities with others instead of his differences:

• “I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I’m waiting in line like everybody else.”
• “I really reject that kind of comparison that says, ‘Oh, he is the best. This is the second best.’ There is no such thing.”
• “I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”

Free yourself from the joyless, frustrating game of comparing yourself to other people!

DrDebBrown.com