Why do we Compare ourselves? | Should you Compare yourselves? | What is the right way to do Comparison? | Blog about Comparison

 

In this article, we are going to have a look on 'Why do we compare ourselves?' Is it okay to compare yourselves with others? How does it affect us and how should you let it affect you!

So lets begin with it...



Why do we Compare Ourselves? Why do we feel the need to Compare?

We do the comparisons to determine value of ourselves/someone. We evaluate our abilities by comparing us with others.


Comparison is normal behaviour and measuring ourselves against others is the Modus Operandi of human mind. Its not bad though, it is good because it can give us an idea on where we are in life and how well we are doing isn't it? But hey!, there is the problem in the way we compare ourselves as comparison either makes us motivated to move ahead in life or it makes us feel inferior to others. It depends on the way you look at it.


Let me give you an example; You have taken membership of a gym and decided to board your transformation journey, you were regular goer. You became friends with a fellow gym member and as your timings were same you started working out together.



It’s been a month now and you started to see changes in yourself which is good and inspiring but the results of your buddy were a bit better than yours. Now what happens? Chances are that you feel motivated to do more right? As you both started together and there was not much difference in your achievements at that point.


After couple of months, you stopped going to gym as you had to move to a different city for your job,  new City, new friends, new lifestyle….


One year later, you have left the active lifestyle; already-far from it. No Gym, no activity, sedentary lifestyle.


One fine evening when you were sitting on your couch, scrolling your Instagram feed, with bag of chips munching on it. You saw a pic of your gym buddy, the same friend with whom you started the transformation journey. You noticed that things have changed now, you see him having shredded body, abs, biceps and looking way better than earlier.



…. You start feeling jealous, thinking to yourself ‘how the hell he got that body? And look at me! Why I don’t have that body. We used to go gym together!'


You are now comparing your one month’s efforts to his one year's efforts! Is this a valid comparison? Ask yourself. 


This is a classic case of comparison when you feel inferior, because you are not doing a realistic comparison. Your achievement levels are different here, your efforts are not at par to reach that achievement but yet you feel inferior, jealous, small and what not.



Comparison is good but if you do it in a right way.


Acknowledge and ask question.

        Whenever you feel the need, feel the urge to compare yourself with other, firstly acknowledge it and accept it. Trigger to start comparing could be anything like social media posts, youtube videos, face to face seeing them etc. you just have to accept that you are comparing yourself and start asking 'Why do I feel that way?', 'Why do I feel inferior?' 'Am I jealous?'...


Answer the questions and assess it!

        …Your answers could be, 'I want to do the same', 'I want to achieve the same success', 'I am jealous because I dont have what he/she has'...

Cool, thats perfectly fine if you do feel this way. Good thing is that now you are one step forward towards understanding the cause of your feeling that way i.e. jealous, inferior, small etc.


Lets see, when you say 'I want to do the same' or 'I want to achieve the same success' or I dont have what they have'. Ask yourself , are you putting any efforts? Are you putting all the hard work that they have put? Do you have all the skills to achieve that success? 


Are you running the same race at all or just sitting and watching the other person winning it with their hard work and perseverance?


Was your answer Yes?





Good ! If you are already putting your 100%, doing hard work and constantly pushing yourself further, there is no point of feeling jealous, inferior, small etc. because you are doing what you could possibly do, you are pushing hard on yourself. You are running the same race, Its just the matter of time when you will taste the success. Remember. 'Hard work always pays off'

Was your answer No?




No worries, I know majority of us are falling in this category. Its easier for us to see someone and either judge them or compare ourselves with them and feel small. We compare without taking any actions towards what we feel, want to do.

I compare myself a lot with other people, such as a Youtuber whom I follow, a fellow body builder friend, another blogger/vlogger. I think to myself, 'Why can't I do it?' , 'I want to be a good blogger as that guy', 'I want that shredded body as well!'. See here, I am feeling inferior and somewhat jealous.

Since I found a way to turn this feeling into a motivation, I start asking myself. 'Okay, its good you want to become a better blogger but are you taking any step forward in that direction? Are you writing consistently? Are you upskilling your writing skills? etc' 

My answer to these are 'No'. I am not putting my 100% efforts towards what I want to become. And this is when I drive my thoughts towards not comparing myself to anyone and just keep going. Keep hustling.

Also remember...

We all are built different from one another, our circumstances are different, our problems are different, our situations are different, this is why comparison doesnt' make sense most of the times. So stop comparing, keep doing things that take you forward, keep yourself motivated. You are no less than anyone else......And if you ever feel the need to compare, just apply the logic I mentioned above 😎




If you liked what you read above, below are my other blog posts which you would find interesting too.






Attributes for Images used in this blog

Photo by Nik ShuliahinVictor Freitas , Usman YousafGemma Evans from Unsplash

People photo created by wayhomestudio - www.freepik.com

22 comments:

  1. Yes read all the things and acknowledged the same ... Yes I do understand all the things but again what if there was no fault of yours in some thing and people around you always make you feel down and feel like u t nothing even after doing hard work


    I agree to all your points and yes o will apply these with all other stage ofmy life but the one which I mentioned above is my life's biggest disappointment and the people I mentioned are my everything 💔


    Why people compare is when we don't compare ourselves

    I hope u will answer the same in your next vlog


    Will wait coz I really feel genuine points in your blog jijs

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    1. @mausam... If you are confident then no one make you feel low or down... Just believe in yourself. I am not saying ignore everyone what they are saying.. if they are close to you just remember they do have their own opinion/thinking/judgment.... what really matter is you and how you carry yourself. Don't bother how people see you. Focus on yourself 🙂

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    2. Thank you Mausam, it means a lot and about your query, I will work on that in my upcoming blogs.

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  2. To tell the truth after reading this blog, I became motivated because I used to think the same thing, and to tell the truth, when I was reading your blog, there was a mention of yes and no in that place, there my answer is no. But from now on I will also give my 100%��

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  3. Very well written Ankit. Good going.

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  4. Well written and Relatable, Thanks Ankit.

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  5. perfect.why we should compare ourselves . Great ankit :)

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  6. Amazingly expressed Ankit, so proud of you....

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  7. Anku aise to aap bahut achha likhe ho,and it was amazing lekin mai aapko bas suggest kar rahi hu ki aap un logo ke liye vi kuch likho, jo motivat hote hai, phir vo try vi karte hai khud per lekin unko result nahi malta hai to unko kya karna chahiye .

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  8. One of the most common behaviour of our subconscious mind.as you said, the first step is to recognise that you are comparing, which itself help you to explore why we are doing that. I totally agree with your points. Comparison should be done, but to see if someone has achieved something, what he/she has done to achieve that? It is surely not the things you have done so far and thus he/she has achieved that and you haven't.Good one!!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, exactly..you got it :) and thank you so much for your comment....it means a lot :)

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  9. Good suggestions to utilise comparison as motivation by asking right questions. But I think you should also added points to compare yourself with you and be a better version of yourself.

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    Replies
    1. Correct, it should be ideally 'You' vs 'You'.....got your point...

      thanks for the comment and suggestion :)

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  10. Well said Ankit! I also compare my self with other person specially when I want something desperately and other person achieved that. Sometime its totally by luck and sometimes person achieved that with much efforts. Just few months ago I realized my mistake about wrong comparison I was doing. And your blog also motivated me. Thanks for sharing...

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