Comparison is the Thief of Joy

I absolutely love what I do. I’m blessed to have the role in life that I do. I have a beautiful family, with an incredibly loving husband and the most beautiful baby boy. And I absolutely love my full time job, I know that’s rare. I’m also, somehow, able to find time to blog on the side, which is another thing that I absolutely love doing. I may have to wait until my baby is napping and write a blog post over four separate naps, but I’m still able to write and blog. Some days I sit and think about how great my life is and the things I get to do and the people I know, and I am floored. I truly do feel really lucky, so I don’t know why I’ve been comparing myself to others. 

Lately, I’ve been really caught in my head. I find myself thinking negative thoughts about who I am and what I’m accomplishing. Even though I love what I’m doing, I find myself comparing myself to everyone else. A mom doesn’t have as big of a pregnant belly as I did. Another mom lost the baby weight so much faster than me. And look at that other girl I know, who has never had a baby, and she has such a great body! I find myself jealous of other breastfeeding moms who have smaller boobs than me(I know this one is really weird, sorry). And don’t even get me started when it comes to comparing myself to other bloggers. Bloggers who have a bigger following, bloggers who have a smaller following but better engagement, and bloggers who seem to be working with more, and better, companies than I am.

I have been comparing myself to others SO much lately that I have been so down. It doesn’t matter what content I create, how well I perform at my job, or how many times I make it to the gym, I just feel like someone else out there is doing it so much better than me.

It’s frustrating. There are so many things that I want to do. Did you guys know that I write? Not just on my blog, but I LOVE writing. I’ve been writing since I was three. Two years ago I started writing a book, and I had a publisher interested in it, but then I just stopped about a year ago and haven’t touched it since. I could’ve accomplished so much in the past two years if I’d stuck with that but I haven’t and it kills me.

And I love to travel! My dream would be to just constantly travel with Seth and Bastian. I love experiencing new places, new cultures, new foods. I have a handful of friends who are constantly travelling, and it gives me the worst case of FOMO.

Here’s the thing. Every single person is in a different situation. I have no right to judge my life against theirs. They’ve had different experiences that have led them in different paths than me and that’s okay. I need to embrace where I’m at. A million people have said these exact same things before, and I haven’t listened. Feeling sad about my accomplishments isn’t going to make me a better, or more successful, person. The only thing that will do that is by getting up off my sad butt and doing. Writing more, eating better, actually working out, and focusing on the things that I want.

Don’t let anyone else’s success make you feel bad about your success! The girl with a smaller pregnant belly than you? Probably not as pregnant as you were. The mom who lost the baby weight faster? God given metabolism, you can’t compete with that. The girl with an amazing body? She’s worked her butt off(literally) for YEARS to look that way. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Ladies with smaller boobs? Another God given gift. And bloggers with bigger followings? They’ve been doing it YEARS and YEARS longer than me.

So we all need to stop comparing ourselves to others. Make your own path and instead of feeling down about other people’s successes, congratulate them, and then keep on going. Their successes don’t make your successes failures.