Be honest with me here, how many times have you seen a picture on social media and thought, “Man, I just wish I had…. (fill in the blank here)”? This is something we are facing more and more lately and more content gets posted on social media. Everyone out there wants to post their perfectly crafted meals or their beautifully staged entryway. Then when you look at it and realize your entryway is filled with backpacks and sneakers, you feel like you are doing something wrong. Am I right? What if I told you it didn’t have to be this way? In this post I will share with you 3 tips to help avoid the comparison curse!
Gratitude
Practicing gratitude is one of the biggest things we can do to help us improve our mood and positivity. There is honestly some kind of magical power in sitting down and thinking of a few things in your day that make you grateful. If you haven’t tried this yet then I’m sure you are sitting here thinking I’m crazy and that this idea of gratitude is just a new buzz word floating around. While you may be right, it is a new buzz word, there is a lot of truth in it!
Whenever I am finding my mind starting to think out that dreaded sentence, you know the “I just wish I had…” one, I stop myself and immediately start either writing or thinking about 3 things that happened in my day so far that made me grateful. This helps to shift my mindset from comparing my life to someone elses and focuses on the good in my own life. This should be a quick practice. You can write it down or just stop and think about it!
Small Victories
Sometimes I notice people falling into the comparison curse when they are working towards a really big goal. Their journey is long and they won’t have that satisfaction of completing it anytime soon. I totally get this and it is so easy to just look at someone else’s journey and think, “ugh I just wish I had that.” What you aren’t seeing from that person was their journey to get where they are. You aren’t seeing their hard work or sacrifices, you are just seeing the end result.
When this is the case I find setting smaller goals that will lead to your larger goal can totally help. You then get to celebrate those small victories and it helps you to stay on track and feel accomplished. When we feel that way we are less likely to focus on all the negatives and the things other people have that we don’t!
What’s the Trigger?
A really important part of this is to figure out exactly what is making you feel bad and why. Now this is no easy task and can take a while to really understand what is making you feel so bad about yourself when seeing what others have. Maybe it is a sign that you have a desire to start a new project but haven’t been brave enough to take the leap. Or maybe you realize you will need to make some changes in your life to help you be happier.
You may be able to figure out the triggers on your own or you may even want to talk about it with a licensed healthcare professional! Both are fantastic options and you should do whichever works best for you.
And there we are, my 3 go to tips for avoiding the comparison curse. I know from my own experience this won’t change overnight. It was something I had to work at and even now I still find myself saying that dreaded phrase!
If you want to dig a little deeper into the self love journey you should come and join my free 30 Day Self Care Challenge! Just enter your name and email and I’ll send it your way! It’s that easy! See you there!
