So you’re good at something. Are you better than the kid down the street?
You can play well. But do you play better than your buddy?
It’s never self-improvement. It’s creating a pressureful scale of trying to be better than someone else. We live in a world that suffers from chronic comparison. The scale is sticky, contagious, and relentless. You’re probably never going to be the best, yet you never stop trying.
Comparison is a double-sided trap. One side leads to despair, the other leads to pride. Both are born from insecurity. Research shows that constant social comparison can lead to resentment, dissatisfaction, and “unjoyment” (that should be a word).
Even the comparison itself is flawed. You’re comparing your complex internal struggles with someone else’s carefully curated external “presentation”.
Stop vying for an impossible position, and enjoy where you are. Comparison leads to envy, and envy is “the thief of joy.”
Don’t compare yourself.