06 Mar Be happy with you
We live in a time when people are judged, ranked and assessed on what they have, what they do or what they’ve done. Our high performance corporate environments encourage us to always be better than the person next to us, exceed expectations and over deliver in a shorter time. We are judged by others, but mostly by ourselves. We constantly compare ourselves to those around us. Someone else is always smarter, better looking, fitter, wealthier and better dressed. Other families have better cars, more adventurous overseas holidays and bigger homes in leafier suburbs. Other people always have a better work-life balance, a more innovative approach or a more productive time card. Everyone else’s kids always have healthier, home cooked lunches, are better behaved and have a better vocabulary at a younger age. It is always about what they have and what I don’t. What they do and what I don’t. What they’ve done and what I haven’t.
With many of us constantly comparing ourselves in this way, it is no wonder we so often feel inadequate and disappointed in ourselves. We feel like we have somehow failed. We try to fill our lives with things that we think will make us seem more successful, accumulating things that actually have no value in this life at all, doing things that we think will get us acknowledgement, running ourselves into the ground trying to be everything to everyone.
We too quickly get caught up in this comparison driven tailspin and forget to reflect on all the blessings and all the good in our own lives. We too quickly forget to be thankful for our own talents and our own strengths. We lose sight of the calling for each of our lives and the uniquely designed purpose and plan that is for each of us as individuals. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others and putting ourselves down that we lose confidence in who we are. We forget the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt – comparison is the thief of joy.
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