Do you constantly see other people succeeding at everything they do while you don’t seem to progress?

Stop it! that is just a nasty habit that will make you less motivated in life. Comparing yourself to other people will only make you frustrated.

I had a friend of mine complaining on Facebook about how others are doing so well and that he is just stuck in his same routines and that he didn’t feel like he is accomplishing anything.

My suggestion to him and to you is that you instead start comparing yourself to your previous self. Now what does that mean? it’s simple really. Just ask yourself simple questions like:
Have you progressed in the past month? Are you better off than you were half a year ago?

These are the questions you should keep asking yourself. To be able to compare with your previous self you should also be tracking your progress in whatever aspect your currently trying to improve yourself in. I will write a post on how to effectively track your progress later.

It doesn’t matter how much your friends or competitors have advanced in the past year, it is all about how much you have progressed.

The Highlight reel problem

Another thing you will have to realize is that everyone who is something in any area, have worked their asses off to get there. What you see is the result of their years of training.

“The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” -Steven furtick

Further multiplying the “highlight reel” problem is social media, where people only show the best sides of themselves: Vacation pictures, Great food, Out in nature etc. No one is posting about the time it took to make the food, or how long they had to drive or hike to get to the nice spot.
No one will post a bad picture of themself and everything is put through filters to make it look better.

Instead of getting frustrated and unmotivated by others success you should use it as a motivator to get to the same level as others. Reach out and ask them what they’ve done to become successful. It is always good to get feedback from those who know what they are doing.

Everyone wants the quick fix, but trust me: What comes fast goes fast. If you go on some miracle diet and loose 10 pounds in a week you are sure to gain those pounds, and then some, back.

You should learn to love the journey towards your goals instead of the goals themselves. Because when you reach your goal you are just going to find another goal that you want to reach. and then you are running at risk of getting unhappy with always being far from your goals.

It’s like with life: the ultimate goal is death, everyone will die, and you won’t enjoy the goal, but rather the journey towards it, in this case your life.

There is a quite awesome video on this subject by Yahja

If you have some questions or comments leave them below!