I was listening to a physician interview recently and tuned in late but heard him quote someone else: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty; compare me to the alternative.” How is comparison going for you? I’m noticing with myself and with my university students as well as with my physician and nurse clients that the tendency to compare is all too common with pretty disastrous results.
Any time we compare we engage in ‘vertical’ thinking, someone is ‘up’ and someone is ‘down’. This seesaw of superiority and inferiority is not only bad for the diminished one, but also for the one on top too. Elite athletes may be competing ‘against’ someone or some record, but when they let their hair down the real competition is withing themselves. This is probably a useful way to compare but when we are in constant competition with others mentally, we run the risk of diminishment happening every day. “I have to be better than you, and you, and you. Simply saying that puts me I an inferior position every day scrambling for a superior position.