Rawr
Here’s something that’s been on my mind: What are the pros and cons of comparing yourself to someone else? Generally, whenever I find myself comparing myself to others, I’ll have bouts of self doubt followed by a period of artists block. Which sucks. But instead of banning myself completely from the habit, I want to find out if there are any redeeming qualities in doing so I don’t ditch something that’s completely useful.
I think the most obvious benefit of self comparison is, comparing where you are now to where you could be for the purpose of setting yourself goals to achieve them. Perhaps that’s the opposite of what I do – instead of working out how I could get to the level I’m admiring, I sigh knowing how far I’ve got to climb before I get there.
Another one would be comparing yourself to someone who is completely different to how you’d want to be. I’m not sure how useful this would be, unless there’s a paticular repulsive thing that you want to avoid and you need to check that you’re still well away from that.
And the last one I can think of is: comparing yourself to someone less good than you are, or (what I do) comparing your old work to your newer stuff to get a bit of an ego boost when you see how much you’ve improved.
So, perhaps self comparison is a good thing, depending on the point of view you have when you do so. If you do it with the intention of learning something about yourself, it’s a good thing. But if you do it and end up feeling down about yourself and what you do, then you need to stop yourself and say “What can I learn from this?”
What other benefits are there to self comparison? And what do you feel when you compare yourself to someone else?
5 Comments
I do this all the time ok some times it gets me down but by seeing how they do things you can really improve your self I find I look for people better then me and then try to beat them as a way of moving forword
studies have shown that people who have a tendency to compare (their house with someone else’s, their TV or car to someone else’s, their holidays, hobbies, salary, skills etc to someone else’s) seem to be less happy than others. whether that’s because there are underlying self-worth issues or whether the comparison process is inherently depressing, i don’t know. comparing yourself to where you were 6m or a year or more previously seems more helpful, in terms of charting your progress – but overall i think the less thinking and the more doing one does is better. no one got good by just sitting thinking…!!!!
That’s an interesting study! I wonder if people who compare their houses etc to someone else with the intention of buying a house like it feel happier than those who dwell on the fact that they don’t have it.
You do get awfully good at thinking when you sit around thinking
That’s a good idea, I hadn’t thought of trying to beat them to get motorvation. Damn, now I’m going to be all competitive every time I see someone better than me!
I don’t compare myself to others. There’s no one like me. I learned early on that no one else’s body looks like mine or has my unique combination of skills and limitations. It wasn’t long before it was obvious that applied to the mind as well.