Comparison is truly the bloody thief of joy! I, amongst many others, am terrible for this. Only yesterday, I was running further than I have gone in months (rather slowly mind!), and I was beating myself up because other people were overtaking me. Why wasn’t I praising myself for running further than usual instead?

It got me thinking again about how we compare ourselves to others and the negative effect on self-esteem and happiness this has. We need to force ourselves to focus on our own story and achievements, but how realistic is this? Can we stop comparing our looks, our personality, our achievements with others? Perhaps it is a case of reminding ourselves that yes, he has a great job and she has the perfect figure, but this does not necessarily make them better or happier people. Think of your own achievements, your own unique qualities which others do not have.

In my instance, will running faster than others make me a better person than them? NO. Will running faster than others make me happier than them? Again, it’s a no. Avoiding comparison completely seems near impossible, but we can take time to put it into perspective and manage our thoughts to create a more realistic picture of ourselves and others.