One of the worst things I do is when I start comparing myself to other people.

I’m sure we’ve all been there. We look at someone else and see only what they have, and we lack. We become envious. We feel crappy about ourselves, because in the comparison, we inevitably come up short.

Why is that person more [__] than me? Why does that person have more [__] than me? What am I doing wrong? What am I not doing enough of?

ARGH.

It’s so incredibly destructive. And yet I fall into that pit over and over again. Not all the time. Not constantly. But occasionally, and sometimes quite hard.

Usually when I’m feeling lousy about something with respect to my own life. And even when my life is fine but there’s some old, nagging business from the past nibbling at my soul.

At times like those, I have to stop and remind myself of two things:

gratitudeOne. Everyone has their own path. That person whom I envy at this particular moment has their own path, and I have my own path. I can’t walk theirs, and they can’t walk mine.

Two. I need to get some gratitude. Because I’m betting that at some point, some time, someone looks at me and sees something that they lack, and thinks to themselves: I wish I had what she has.

I have so much good in my life. I need to focus on that, and not on my perceived shortcomings. I need to make a list of the things I have, and for which I’m grateful. I even bet that I have things in my life that the person I envy at this particular moment doesn’t have in their life, and would love to have.

I need to bring the focus back to me, and stop focusing on other people. And I need to ask my higher power to guide me along my path – the path that is mine.

[photo found here]