|
Don’t
COMPARE.COM and You Won’t be CONFUSED.COM!
We live in the era of instant access to comparison. At the touch of a few keys
we can compare prices and services of almost anything from electricity to houses, from cars to
camels! It’s a brilliant service that offers the opportunity to use both time and money more
efficiently. But it is a tendency that tends not to stop at commodities and utilities. As we
spectate the world through our media window we also find ourselves easily trapped in comparisons
with others. Either consciously or subconsciously many of us will also spend our life in search of
an identity and thereby spent much time watching and comparing our self with others along the way.
As we search for an identity it’s as if we are torn between being like someone else and
completely rebelling against all established types… stereo or otherwise! At the same time
some of us will believe we have found our individuality by being the same as someone else. We
don’t notice the contradiction when we imitate another, either by looks, fashion or lifestyle,
and yet believe we are a trendsetter!
Comparing your self with another is one of the most disempowering habits. Often
learned at an early age, it is well fed by the marketing and entertainment industries. Cars, bodies,
homes, friends, lifestyles and personality are only a few of the many levels at which we learn to
compare our self with other people. In so doing we seldom feel our self-esteem becoming stronger,
and if we do, it is more likely to be a short lived inflation of our ego, and deflation must follow.
Comparing ourselves with others is a deep and often subtle conditioning in a
world where ‘people watching’ has become, for many, a daily obsession. As we watch, we
compare, as we compare, we desire, and as we desire we lose our ability to be content with where we
are and what we have. Someone else’s life always look better than ‘my life’,
someone else’s success always seems much greater than any success I may achieve and someone
else’s future always seems to look much rosier than my future. These thought patterns are
fatal to our well-being and over time can paralyse our ability to think clearly for ourselves.
Although there are many levels at which we learn to compare, perhaps the most
common is at the level of form. The ‘beauty myth’ feeds us the illusion that if we are
not drop dead stunningly gorgeous then we cannot be successful and we cannot be happy. The images of
perfectly formed bodies, with the most attractive faces, adorn our glossy magazines (women’s
and men’s) and, in some places, our daily newspaper. As we absorb the ‘beautiful is
best’ mythology many will spend both money and time attempting to achieve the shape, smile,
suntan and style of life of those whom they aspire to be like. It all comes with that subtle promise
of happiness and success, and if our awareness is dim enough, we will believe it. Then we become
perplexed as to why we are even unhappier, and even more discontent, when we obviously fail to look
like the manufactured image of the perfected human form. The sadness at not achieving what we
perceive others have achieved, the disappointment at not being able to duplicate the physical beauty
of another, can lead to depression, and then other industries will benefit from our expenditure as
we attempt to counter our flagging feelings of self worth. It is a spiral that only leads downwards.
However there are those who will counter all this and say that it’s good
to aspire to the heights that others seem to have reached. It is here that we meet a fine line
between imitation and inspiration. It’s always good to recognise the best and see the virtue
in another’s character. But while it its good to see their virtues it pays to leave the person
outside the doorway of our mind. Imitation may be a form of flattery but it is also a sign that we
are suppressing our self. An aspiration towards excellence, an inclination to inculcate virtue, an
intention to replace our vicious cycles with virtuous cycles at the level of our thoughts, feelings
and attitudes is the road to being all that we can be. But it is a road we must walk alone. It is
not a road to more acquisition or accumulation. It is a journey towards the realisation that each
and every one of us is already all that we can ever be, we are already complete, we are already
worthy and highly esteemed. It’s just that we have temporarily lost awareness of it.
Ending all comparison with others is essential to living a contented and
fulfilling life, where our life is ‘filled’ from inside out, not outside in. To break
the habit it helps to remember three things:
-
You are unique (it is the one
thing we ALL have in common!) and it is impossible to look or be the same as anyone else.
-
Your life is a gift and an
opportunity to plough your own furrow, create your own path, shape your own destiny, and in so doing
you do what you are here to do which is create your life which, if you do it well, will enrich the
lives of others.
-
You already have all that you
need within you. Much of what your body needs comes from outside you, but ALL that YOU need comes
from within, and you can never loose it, only lose your awareness of it, and connection with it!
This means that what you see in the
bathroom mirror in the morning is not you, it is just the form you occupy. It means beauty is not
skin deep, it is beyond the skin. It means beauty is not an image or a reflection, it is what you
see and feel when you know yourself as you truly, uniquely are. And it is what others will see and
feel when your thoughts and actions are shaped by love, guided by truth and shared with kindness.
Then virtue will be its own reward, as well as ‘bring’ its own rewards. And then all
comparison with others and all aspiration to be like others will seem like a disease that you
recovered from a long time ago.
Question: In what areas or at what levels do you find yourself
comparing yourself with others most.
Reflection: What is the difference between aspiration,
inspiration and perspiration?
Action: See the beauty (virtue) within the actions of one
person every day this week and, where appropriate, tell them.
© Mike George 2009
|
Comments [0]