Life is all relative. Some people say, “I am not successful”, “I am unlucky in love”, “I drive a junker of a car”, “I don’t make friends easily”, “life is hard”. And I say, it is all relative. The bar you set and compare yourself to is not the same bar other people may be using. So your comparison? Well it isn’t universal.
On Friday I went to Orange theory fitness for a workout. Hey now…I encourage and motivate you daily in your workouts, but be clear, I need encouragement and motivation too. Especially since my kickboxing coach is in AZ, and I am now 2 months post world championships, about 17lbs heavier, drinking vanilla lattes, and getting farther from being “fight ready” every day. So in effort to get on the band wagon- I am going to fight in the Brazil World cup in May- and get back in shape I sought out a little support (from my competition no less).
I signed in and filled out my waiver and proceeded to say, “I am out of shape”. The teacher went into a little bit of a overview asking me to be really careful and not push too much my first time. I replied with, “Well, saying I am out of shape, is relative”.
And it is. I am comparing myself to myself. And in all honesty I think it is what we need to do to find inspiration. I know what kind of fitness level I have achieved and I know that I fall far below that right now, so for me, I am out of shape.
However, half way through my class, Sacha (the teach), said to me, “What was it you said? It is all relative? YEAH right!” I heard her loud and clear, according to the average first timers I excelled in the class and was not even on the “out of shape” radar.
I needed this reminder. Comparing myself to myself is really the best opportunity for me to grow. When I look outside myself at other people and compare, in so many things I feel I fall short.
Instead, when I look to the progress I’ve made within myself I can be encouraged and motivated rather than looking at others thinking how much farther along they are than I am.
I do a great job of comparing myself to self in fitness (hence the out of shape feeling that is so true for me). Yet in other areas that I am tackling, i.e., building my business, getting acquainted with social media threads like twitter and Facebook, I feel so inadequate. I realize this is because I am comparing myself to media presences, personalities, and individuals that have been at it much longer than me and have a lot more experience.
When I step back and look at my forward movement since I began these endeavors into web media, I can see that I am “getting in shape” in a very rapid time line. I am making progress quickly and learning fast. Yeah me!
It takes some effort- it always does when it matters- but I am not discouraged when I look at my starting point and see where I am now only a few months later. And this is the benefit of self-comparison.
Do you tend to look at others or outside of yourself to gauge your successes? If so what are you comparing yourself to? Someone or something that has had a lot more time, effort, and energy behind it than you?
You will benefit if you take a look at your own progress and goals and compare it to where you were last month, 6 months ago, or even last year. Give yourself some credit! Share with me below how you are rocking your ‘then’ vs. your ‘now’.
If you liked this post, then for goodness sake SHARE it! It will help me improve my self-comparisons in social media.
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