Do you find yourself letting your mind wander and end up comparing yourself to others? Once in a while is normal, but if this is a regular habit, then it’s time to reassess your thought patterns.
Whether you want to create a website or boost your creative skills, it’s crucial not to let other people get into your head. Caring too much about others’ opinions increases your fear and self-doubt. It leads to consistent negative thinking that hinders your productivity, inspiration, and motivation to do better.
If you want to improve yourself or your skills, you need to stop comparing yourself to others. Here are 3 tips to help you get started.
Be Aware of Your Mindset
How often do you actively practice self-awareness? Self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one’s behavior, feelings, thinking patterns, and character. When you identify the motives behind your thoughts and behavior, it’s easier to change them. Without proper self-awareness, it’s impossible to improve your current state of being.
So, how do you go about practicing self-awareness? You can:
- Keep a journal. It’s easier to account for your life events when you can refer back to them. It also helps to track how you felt and why so you can understand your emotions and strengthen your emotional intelligence.
- Meditate. Meditation has shown to help people stop their negative self-talk and thinking patterns. The more you practice mindful meditation, the quicker you’ll quit comparing your thoughts to others and instead focus on yourself.
- Ask for feedback. Those closest to you in your life know you the best, so it can help to get their feedback about the ways you can improve in everyday life. This isn’t to criticize or belittle you. If anything, it’s to help you grow by asking meaningful questions and accepting the answers gracefully.
Cultivate Gratitude
They say that you are what you think, and for good reason. If you constantly create negative, self-deprecating thoughts, you’ll train your brain to believe those things are true. It’s a mental trap that sets you up for failure and blinds you of the wonderful things your life has to offer.
When you fail to cultivate gratitude, you focus on the wrong things. Most importantly, you focus on others instead of yourself. To enhance your skills and intelligence, you need to learn how to appreciate everything in your life instead of the only the things that bring instant gratification.
To build gratitude, simply think of the things you feel thankful for in your life. It could be anything from working out to reading a good book at the end of the day. Maybe you feel grateful for the intimate relationships you have with others or your ability to make people laugh. Concentrating on the positive aspects of your life gives you less time to focus on others and making comparisons.
Focus on Yourself
This might be something you need to hear: people don’t care about what you’re doing nearly as much as you think. Everyone is the star of their own show, and most people are more focused on themselves than those around them.
The next time you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else, redirect your thoughts back to yourself. Try to figure out what it is about this person that makes you feel inferior to the point of criticizing yourself.
For example, let’s say you recently saw someone you know on social media start an online business, which has been a dream of yours. You could compare yourself this person and spend your time wondering why they’re where you want to be. Or, you can use it as an opportunity to enhance your skillset and create goals that bring you closer to success.
Simply thinking about things isn’t going to change your life or help you see your own worth. You need to move forward through action using positivity and self-care.
Over to You
When you compare yourself to others, it lowers your self-esteem and takes time away from self-improvements. While it’s important to stay motivated, you don’t need to look at others’ success as your failure. Putting the work into yourself and reframing how you view your life can change it for the better. How will you quit comparing yourself to those around you?