We live in a world which rewards success to varying degrees. Aim high, dream big, and achieve it all. It is great to have goals in life; figure out what makes you happy, what makes you tick; create a plan to best achieve what will fulfill you. I’ll support this ideal to no end. If something intrigues you, no matter how daunting it may be; if your heart is in it, go for it. There are few things in life that feel better than accomplishing something we weren’t sure we could after days, months, years of perseverance. I’ve always believed; the longer the journey, the greater obstacles overcome, the sweeter the taste of triumph.
A wise man once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy” (Theodore Roosevelt). For some reason, this quote has resonated with me recently. I believe the human nature to ‘compare’ is as innate as is our propensity towards survival. We are social beings. And in being social, especially in the world of 2017 where we’re constantly barraged by media displaying peoples ‘perfect’ moments and ‘perfect’ lives (or at least the perfection they choose to present), it’s easy to look at our own situations relative to others. It doesn’t make us bad or weak; I think it is simply natural to do so. But given that things are rarely what they appear, I believe it to be unhealthy to let ourselves be drawn towards comparison. And I don’t mean only comparison to external things that can negatively affect us. We often compare to ourselves; what we have once done, where we’ve been at some point in our lives. While it is good to have standards and healthy to strive to achieve things, I think there is also great beauty and necessity in living in the moment, appreciating the journey and staying grateful to what we have; which at times, means to even to embrace struggle, challenge and disappointment.