After hours of studying, you get your test back marked with a 93% in red pen. This grade is the best you’ve gotten so far in the class and you are filled from head to toe with happiness. You turn to your friend sitting next to you to share your good news, but instead see the red pen on their test that reads 100%. Immediately, you feel jealous because your friend did better than you. Instead of being proud of yourself, your 93% has no value and makes you mad.
This scenario, whether or not you have ever personally experienced it, is all too real. Every day, each and every one of us is consumed by jealousy: maybe someone got a better grade than us, maybe they lost more weight than us, maybe they got a present we really wanted, maybe they won a prize we thought we earned. The problem is, when afflicted by jealousy, we forget and disregard our own victories.
Theodore Roosevelt alerted us to this predicament when he said “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Naturally, we strive for perfection and aim to do our best. However, society places us constantly in a competition: media platforms such as People and Time rank celebrities and others as “Sexiest Man of the Year” and “Person of the Year,” highlighting people as the best of the best; schools use Dean’s Lists to advertise the highest ranking students; even health insurances offer benefits to their customers who are the healthiest. These few examples demonstrate how it is simply just impossible to avoid comparing ourselves to others.
Although our world tries to tell us our grades, our looks and our weight decide our value, they don’t.
What does decide our value is our personalities.
Do we put all our effort into studying? Do we appreciate our appearances? Do we take care of our bodies?
We combat jealousy by building confidence and character. It is important to be proud of who we are because there is no one else like us in the world. No one can take our place and no one can fulfill our purposes on earth besides us.
We must approach our daily tasks and duties with this mindset and act accordingly by doing the best we can. However, we also learn from those who excel. Referring back to the opening example, if you got a 93% on your test, you could go over the questions you missed with your friend who earned 100% and learn where you went wrong. If we take the time to appreciate our efforts and the efforts of others, we can perhaps excel next time too.
Life is not a competition.
We must all work together in harmony, looking out for each other and making sure no one is falling behind, so that together we can shoot for the stars and land on the moon.
Do not let comparison be the thief of your joy. Instead, let comparison direct you to greatness.
Sincerely,
Ash
Sincerely, Ash 