Follow me on Twitter (@Successprof)

One trap that many people fall into is the trap of comparing themselves to others. This is a trap because it only leads to negative results. You cannot win by comparing yourself to others.

When you are comparing yourself to others you are likely doing one of four things:

1. You compare yourself to people who are more successful than you and you get discouraged.

Comparing yourself with people more successful than you may cause you to be discouraged because they have achieved success and you have not. You start looking at their level of success as where you should be. This causes you to look at what you do not have instead of what you do have. It takes away from an attitude of thankfulness and contentment with your current situation. While it is healthy to have goals that you pursue, it is not healthy to get discouraged because others get there faster or have more.

2. You compare yourself with people who are more successful than you and you make excuses.

Another risk in comparing yourself with people more successful is that you start to make excuses for your current position. You start to think about why they have succeeded and you have not. You use these differences to justify your current situation – as an excuse. Certainly other people will have a different skill set, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed with what you have.

3. You compare yourself with people less successful than you and you get prideful.

It is easy to feel good about yourself when you compare yourself with people who you think are less successful than you are. This is a false form of self-esteem. True self-esteem does not come from considering yourself better than others. It comes from an awareness of your abilities, what you can achieve, and what you have achieved already.

4. You compare yourself with people less successful than you and you get satisfied.

If you continually compare yourself with people who you view as less successful it is easy to get satisfied with where you are at. If you get satisfied with where you are at, you are less likely to pursue goals that may make a big difference in your life and in the lives of others. You are unique. Your skills and abilities are different from everyone else. You should be satisfied when you do your very best. Your satisfaction should not come from the fact that you are further ahead than someone else. They started at a very different point than you.

Instead of comparing yourself to others:

1. Learn from those more successful than you.

Don’t look at the success of others and get discouraged. Don’t look at them and make excuses for where you are at. Look at successful people and learn from them. Look at their activity. What are they doing to reach their goals? Take those activities and duplicate them in your life. You will move towards the type of successes that they have.

2. Teach those less successful than you.

Don’t look down on people less successful than you and get prideful. Don’t use their lack of success and get satisfied with where you are at. Instead, look for ways to encourage, lead, and teach those people. If they are willing to learn you can lift them up. If you have gotten somewhere that they would like to get, you can help them get there too. Success is not a limited pie. When others become more successful, it doesn’t mean you become less successful. In fact, it is usually the opposite. As you help people become more successful you become more successful as well.

In conclusion:

• don’t compare yourself with others
• learn from those more successful than you
• teach those less successful than you
• understand that everyone started at a different place
• everyone can succeed by doing the best that they can

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

Tags: comparing, discouraged, envy, Goals, learning, pride, success

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 7:10 am and is filed under Motivation, Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.