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by partisan
1552 days ago
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I’m all for mantras that give you the right mindset to achieve your goals, but I wonder whether it’s necessary or healthy to compare oneself to others. Also, to what do you attribute the successes of those dumber people? Pure hard work? |
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For example, I am morbidly obese, 100+ lbs overweight. The data are very clear: that is extremely unhealthy. If I lived without comparing myself to other people, I would think it’s just fine, because eating right for me is insanely difficult and causes me to jones for food for hours at a time (e.g. eating at 6pm, getting hungry again at 8pm, and wanting food desperately until I finally get to sleep at 5:30 am is a normal day for me). Eating junk makes me feel integrated and whole—every time. Eating the right amount of calories is agony. Exercising makes me feel horrible.
Another example: my family wrecked their lives with drug consumption and nearly wrecked mine with terrible handling of relationships. But when I got away I learned by comparing my upbringing with others that those patterns were damaging, and that I didn’t have to visit that upon my own kids.
Comparisons like this are necessary for me calibrate my systems and actions.
Why do people dumber than I am sometimes do better? I never worried about that. I just figured that by working hard and using common sense I could usually replicate their success.