Much like you, I grew up comparing myself to other people. Some of it was actually taught to me tacitly by my parents and the people around me by, comparing my grades to my older brothers, comparing my sports accomplishments to my older brothers, comparing my grades to other people in class. “You need to get better. You need to be closer to number one. You need to achieve valedictorian.” These are some of the basic comparisons that you and I have both run into in our childhood.

What ends up happening is the creation of a learned behavior, and as we get into business we start looking at, “Well, why did he get the promotion? I’m just as good as he is, or just as good as she is. Why did she get that award but I didn’t? Why did she get that promotion but I didn’t? Why did he get that job and I didn’t?” All of these things are about comparing ourselves to other people. You start finding achievement in your life and stepping out of the box a little bit, but you bring that comparison gene along with you. You are looking at, “Well, I’m doing everything that person’s doing. Why are they making more money than I am? Why are they ranking up when I’m not?” More comparing, and it really serves to you miserable. It leads you into suffering, and you just sit there and ruminate over it. You continue to suffer, and go down the negative path.

I have a bit of advice for you. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Just stop doing it. The only one you need to compare yourself to is you, and look at whether or not you’re making progress. Making progress is one of the biggest desires in the human psyche . If you’re making progress, you will be happy. Whether it’s a step at a time, whether it’s a mile at a time, or going to another planet. So, stop comparing yourself to other people. Compare yourself to you. Look at where you were yesterday or last week, and figure out how you can be better and make better progress the next time around. That’s what really matters in this world. If you go out and look at how you progress against yourself, you will be able to make big progress, and you will be much, much happier in this world. I hope this rings true for you.