Jane Doe is Doing Better than You. Or is She?
Comparisons can be the kiss of death to your progress.
When you set your goals and start working towards them, you need to focus on you and your progress. DO NOT compare yourself to others.
This is true for so many reasons:
- It’s apples and organges. No two people and no two goals are exactly alike. There is no comparison.
- Someone may be a step ahead of you, but maybe it has taken them 3 times longer to get there.
- You don’t know their whole story – social media has lots of brag-a-docious photos, which are only a part of the reality. Majority of people don’t share their trials and tribulations, only their triumphs. You aren’t getting the full story.
- And any time spent focusing on others, is time spent away from what is important: working your plan.
Comparisons can be the kiss of death on both sides:
- If someone is doing better than you, don’t use that to berate yourself or convince yourself you knew all along you could never succeed. You would be taking the easy way out by giving yourself a poor excuse to quit.
- This is also a sure fire way to give your power away. Why would you ever let someone else’s progress - or what you think is their progress - impact what you do and your progress?
- On the other end, if you are doing better than others, don’t use that as an excuse to take a couple of months off. Stopping can start a backward slide.
Really, who cares if Jane Doe is doing better than you? You could maybe use it as a motivational tool to figure out something she is doing that you can/should be doing. But other than that, it is more likely the comparison will have a negative affect.
Hear this: THIS IS NOT A RACE. NOR IS IT A CONTEST. This is about you and your progress and comparing yourself to someone else can be the kiss of death to your progress.
Instead, compare yourself to your established timeline and your metrics. That is the only measurement that counts.
- If you are doing better than expected, fantastic! Keep going!
- If you are not doing as expected, okay! Figure out why not, fix it, and and keep going!
I’m here to cheer you along the way… and will never compare you to anyone else!
Turning “one day?” into “DAY ONE!” is all about you. You got this!