Let’s Stop Comparing Ourselves

Have you ever stopped to wonder how many times a day you compare yourself to another person without even realizing it? I don’t have an exact number but I’m fairly certain that over half of my instinctive thoughts regard comparing myself to another. Since when did self-validation come from other peoples’ consent? Since when did doing what I like become second to doing what everyone else likes?
I think this is something I’m going to struggle with for a lot of my life, and I know many other people struggle with it as well. Growing up, this idea of comparison is pounded into our heads like learning to walk or learning to talk. We’re shown pictures of celebrities who tell us how to look, stories with characters who tell us how to act, and people in school that tell us what’s “cool” and what’s “weird.” It’s this early on-set cycle that is so incredibly overwhelming and so engrained into human society that nobody thinks anything of it. I think it’s time for a change.
It’s time to start telling the children that they need to be their own favorite superhero or favorite princess. It’s time to stop comparing how you look in a dress to how the girl next to you looks in hers. You both look your own kind of amazing. It’s time to stop glancing over to the person on the machine next to you at the gym because you want to know if they’re stronger than you or not. It’s time to focus on YOU.
There are times to be selfless and there are times to be selfish. When it comes to feeling good about yourself, that is a time to be selfish. Focus on you rather than comparing yourself to others. Don’t sacrifice your personal interests because somebody else deems them as weird, or because you’re afraid that somebody else will be better than you.
It’s hard to stop comparing yourself to others when this cycle has been a part of your life for so long, but the first step to stopping it is recognizing it. When you recognize that you are comparing yourself to another, whether friend or foe, I want you to tell yourself that what he or she does/wears/says/likes has no power over what you do/wear/say/like. Let’s stop comparing ourselves to others and start setting our own records.