Compare and Despair!

 

NOT a threat here.  BUT try COMPARING yourself to someone else, you might end up in DESPAIR!@#$%?  Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States was widely quoted: COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY.  Is that a hyperbole.  I'd say NO because that's the stark truth, the harsh reality in life.  You can have your best friend OR even your twin sibling BUT if there's one NO-NO you CAN'T breach, NEVER COMPARE because DESPAIR might come next, adding to your frustration😡😡😡

Admittedly, early in life, I seemed to have lived my life by comparing myself to others, at first in school and activities therein.  And as I matured, before I knew it, I was beginning to compare metrices LIKE job titles, income levels and when I was @SHELL, I was so tempted to compare myself with others based on CEP [the Career Expected Potential] wherein each of us were assessed NOT just on actual work performance BUT even in our CEP, i.e. whether one has the potentials to reach a specific senior leadership role in the organization.  I then discovered that there is an infinite number of categories upon WHICH we can compare ourselves and an almost infinite number of people to compare ourselves to👇👇👇

And it is indeed alarming and extremely worrisome once we take that path of the road because we will realize there is no end those possibilities of COMPARING.  True, that tendency to COMPARE ourselves to others is as human as any other emotion.  And I'm quite sure that certainly, I am NOT alone in this kind of experience.  BUT the difficult realization here is that it becomes a decision that seems to only steal the joy from our lives❗❗❗

The one too many principles we can lift from RUBIK's LAW is just one too many indeed BUT for now, the most relevant one is this simple poster telling that once we start COMPARING ourselves to others, you and me will see all the strings of SUCCESSES of that other person.  BUT how about his flops, his failures?  You would hardly see it and worse, you will miss out appreciating its relevance and importance because those SUCCESS stories tend to take the 'center stage' of your focus, your attention and those FAILURES?  Unfortunately, you would NOT even spare a minute to look into the various dimensions of those FAILURES and pick up lessons💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  There is a not so visible trap out there WHERE we often fall prey.  And that's our initial need to look upon someone as a guide, as a role model and an INSPIRATION.  And there's nothing wrong with that!  That trap shows out its ugly head once we start getting so glued to our inspiration to a point WHEN without being aware OR conscious enough, we start COMPARING ourselves to that supposed INSPIRATION.  That's the trap WHERE many of us [and that includes me in the past] have befallen!@#$%?  Simple lesson here: NEVER COMPARE because you might end up in despair😡😡😡