Comparison is Normal.

“Just stop comparing yourself to others” is a well meaning but an unhelpful piece of advice long term.

Comparison is a normal and healthy part of being a human (a highly social animal). We do it all the time whether consciously or subconsciously.

It’s an important part of understanding our place and opportunities for growth in a social group.

“This person in my team just learned X, that’s a cool skill that I’m not familiar with I’ll take a look at that”

That is a comparison between my knowledge and someone else’s but we wouldn’t necessarily say its a bad thing to do. It opened up an opportunity for knowledge acquisition and expansion.

That being said we can go WRONG in our approach to comparison and what we do on the other side.

I’ve found there are a few steps that I can take if I’m going down a negative route of comparison but one of the most effective is asking the following questions:

💡 Is this an opportunity for inspiration?
🧭 Can I use this person’s success and journey to encourage my own?
👩🏽‍🏫 What can I learn from this person or situation?
👓 How has this given me more clarity on what I want and don’t want in life?

I’m not pretending its always perfect and lovely but since comparison is a part of life it makes sense to use it to our advantage.

Let's call it the Comparison Hijack.
(Naming inspiration goes to the Amygdala Hijack that I learned about recently)