In college I remember that in one of my major exams, we were instructed to sit one chair apart, and were reminded not to not look at other students’ paper. Naturally, the professors would like to keep the examinations integrity and for students to simply not cheat. Perhaps they wanted to know how hard we studied or how much we learned; ultimately justifying the effectiveness of their teaching model, but within those instructions lies a real important message.
Whatever your neighbor writes on his/her paper will not matter. This is your paper, this is your test and it’s yours to complete. The final answers should ultimately come out of you. In addition to this, it is fair to say that every individual is unique, therefore papers should come out uniquely different. If your paper does not meet other people’s expectations this isn’t your problem, your duty is to complete your own paper. Ironically if you think your paper is not good enough compared to other people’s work then again I’m going to tell you; this is not your job.
The point is to write your name on that blank sheet and start to create your own unique answer. So, create and follow your own path and pave your way towards life’s most complex answers.
The cards dealt to me are different from yours.
This can be compared to how you live life today. The dangers of comparing your life to someone else can be very detrimental. Any comparison between you and another person in terms of outcomes in life is not always healthy, you are living two separate lives therefore expect results to be different.
How we measure up to other people’s success does not really matter, it holds no importance at the end of the day. Your goal shouldn’t be to have a better life than others rather to be better than yourself yesterday and ultimately to be the best version of yourself.
I have learned this the hard way when I compared myself to my own peers, my best of friends. Today as a person looking from the outside I would say that they are more successful than me in terms of career and wealth, they are now big time businessmen, some have gone to politics and some are now in high up corporate positions. When I learned about this all I could see are my flaws and limitations gazing at me, though I root for them and happy for the success they achieved, it hurts that I’m still out here trying to figure out life.
I then realized that there are things that I have that they don’t or wish they did, I learned that the way I looked at them is the way they looked at me. In a twisted monocle of a lens, my peers wished to have a part of me in them. Comically enough, they were experiencing what I have been experiencing. This is when it became clear to me that when we compare ourselves to others we tend to concern ourselves with their strengths and all we see are our own weaknesses. We forget that we have won and progressed a ton in life, and that there are countless things that we have that other people don’t.
Circumstances will always be different, some are born rich and some are not, but you can always get there by working hard. Another important thing to remember when comparing your life to other’s is that social media does not tell you the complete story. Be careful whose life it is that you are trying to compare yours, just because they portray a happy life does not really mean they didn’t struggle and just as someone else wants to have the life you have does not mean your better than them.
Your goal in life should be focused on improving yourself and circumstances no matter what cards you are dealt with, to compare your life to others is not a good plan when you are trying to be the better version of yourself, because nobody knows how to be you and no one is going to be better at being you other than you.
XERGIUS 