Do you need to be better than…?

When we were children, we compared ourselves. A lot. 

You may have been the tallest person in the class at one point. You felt proud and privileged that you were blessed with great genes. You felt special.

But then the next year, someone else got a growth spurt and became the tallest person. And you were crushed. You derived a sense of status from being the tallest. And now that disappeared in a year.

Eventually you got older and recognized that being the tallest doesn’t matter. It’s okay to be “you”.

Yet we still have this “I must be better than..” mentality in other areas of our lives. We must have the biggest car on the block. Or we must work at the best job in our friend group. Or we must be the happiest.

Why are we playing that game?

We forget that being “better than” is exhausting. You feel physically drained when you compare yourself to “what you should be”.

The reality is that once we know who we are, we don’t need to compare. We can feel comfortable knowing that we are enough.

Do you really need to be better than?

Why don’t you just be you instead?