I am beyond comparison, I love my existence.

Many of you have had the displeasure of experiencing me at some point in your life. Most of you at every stage in your life. Some of you are maybe doing it right now, scrolling through your feed, checking out the seemingly perfect lives of your contemporaries.

Take a trip down the memory lane, remember that one kid in your class who had the funkiest goodies possible — from spiderman backpacks to convertible pencil boxes. In college, that female with immaculate skin and glossiest hair making you feel like a mere mortal in front of her godly presence. Fast forward to now, when your colleague gets a great round of applause for a spectacular presentation or a simple meeting with an old friend which makes you realize how far he’s come along.

You wish all these instances were simple observations, but I think we can all agree that it went a little deeper than that. We ended up comparing ourselves and gauging where we stand based on what we observed.

So the thing about these comparisons are, you’re almost never taking them positively. How often have you compared yourself with someone less fortunate and then counted your blessings? And it is not your fault entirely since your mind has an innate tendency to analyze things, to decipher where exactly do you stand in the grand scheme of things.

What you all really need to understand, no matter how much cliched this statement sounds is that everyone’s journey is different. Comparing yourself to others is an absolute inaccurate and irrelevant means of measurement. It is nothing but faulty logic. The person you’re comparing yourself to has had a completely different set of hurdles to face (which he/she will never post about in Instagram, FYI) and is also a completely different personality altogether.

So the question then arises — what exactly is the accurate method for measurement? Based on our fundamental need to evaluate ourselves, we do need a reference point for that evaluation, right? The answer for it is quite simple. And it lies within, quite literally. Cliched statement alert, but, your only true competition/comparison, is yourself. More accurately, your past, present and future self — voila! Your reference points. Instead of drowning your thoughts in that downward spiral of self-doubt and pity, why don’t you redirect and focus on how far you’ve come along? Go one, two, five years back and ask yourself how your life has improved. Think about your future, your goals, what have you done today to help you reach there? That is the stuff that counts. How does anyone else’s journey or achievements matter anyway? The only thing that matters, or quite frankly, is in our hands is our own creation.

So the next time you feel like sulking in mediocrity, try refraining it…

After all, I am beyond comparison, I love my existence.