Comparing yourself with others

For most of my student life, doing better than my classmates in exams was one of the most dominating motivations for me to study hard. As I have grown up, I’ve realized that that is an extremely toxic way to live life.

The reason why this kinda worked in a school environment was that in a classroom, this was almost a gettable goal. I had about 50 kids in a class, and I knew most of them quite well. I knew what subjects other people were good at, I knew which person to ask for notes, and all that stuff. There were a handful of people who were getting better grades than me. I knew exactly how much more I had to score to surpass them.

When you get out in the real world though, the number of competitors is quite huge. No matter how well you are doing in your life, there is someone else who is twice as good. If you judge your achievements by comparing it with others, you will never be happy.

I’ve learned this lesson, and have stopped fueling my goals by the jealousy of how well off my friends are. The only thing I care about is this — I’m a better person today than I was 5 years ago.