2017 has already taught me a lot of things and its only the second week!
But something that just keeps coming on my radar is this whole aspect of competition between everyone.
Since when did our lives suddenly become a competition with everyone around us? Why are we constantly trying to one-up the person next to us in every aspect of our lives?
The long and short of it is this:
the fact that someone else is funny or nice or kind or beautiful does not have anything to do with how funny or nice or kind or beautiful you are.
it literally has no correlation. and we need to stop treating it as if it does! We are constantly being put into a competition that no one agreed to and we’re the ones doing it to ourselves!
We’re comparing our friends, our photos, our sense of humors, our bodies, our faces, our everything to one another and putting this imaginary ranking on ourselves that has started to severely negatively affect our lives.
And I will be the first to admit that I do this too. But I am also the first to admit that I am actively trying to altar my mindset about this.
I want to caveat this by saying that I certainly believe in a little healthy competition. I don’t think that participation trophies should be given out and I think that children need to learn that it takes a lot of hard work and effort to accomplish your goals. But we don’t need to take this way of thinking into every aspect of our lives. This life is hard enough by itself and with the added weight of silently competing with everyone you come into contact with, it’s just not worth it.
A quote I heard a long time ago really has affected the way I approach combating this whole thing and it’s this:
“The first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think; what you think next defines who you are.”
You and you alone have to determine what kind of person you are. We all do it. We pass by people on the street and think “Wow they’re pretty. I’m not that pretty, I wish I was that pretty.” And mentally cut ourselves down. We compare our friends with other people’s friends and think that we’re not good enough. We compare our boyfriends or girlfriends. It’s invaded our lives.
Bottom line I’m here to tell you is this:
Each and every one of us is so unique and so interesting and so special enough on our own. If we all tried to be each other, this world would be full of boring, dull, and plastic-surgery covered faces.Be authentically you and forget the rest.
