We are always competing with or comparing ourselves with someone else. Whether it be someone at work, or a driver on the road...the other PTA parent, or your next-door neighbor...the woman in the chair next to you at the salon/nail place...the runner in the purple tights or the person next to you at the gym....Your brother, your sister, your best friend or the stranger on the corner.
We compete with or compare our selves to everyone we see every day. At least most of us do. But we, personally, are the only ones who take to heart when we "lose" that competition. The person that we're competing with or comparing ourselves against doesn't realize that there's a competition. And when we feel like we have failed at the competition, or feel like in comparison we don't match up, we are not happy. As such, we set ourselves up to be sad, depressed. Most of the stress in our life is caused by our own selves. Because we don't think we are as good as someone else??
The only person you should be competing with is yourself. The only person we should compare ourselves to is our past us; us yesterday or last week. Are you able to smile at one more person today? Can you get an extra rep in during your workout? Can you let one driver go while on the road? Can you run an extra five minutes? Can you eat one less treat? Do you have a brighter smile? Do you see the definition in your arms?
I spent this week working on not competing with others. It's a challenge. But I can say my commute has been less stressful and not taking any longer than before. One step at a time. And it's ok if I'm not as fast as the runner in purple tights 😉
