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Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

What I wished I accepted earlier on, I'm telling you in this post.


In my late teens and during my early 20s, I always had an unclear idea of what I wanted to achieve and do in the future. I found myself being heavily influenced by the opinions of what others, particularly my relatives and colleagues, would have of me, and to be honest, most of their opinions made me feel worse about myself. As I have already mentioned in my earlier post "A Job is a Job," they would belittle me by asking why I'm wasting my time in retail and suggest that I should be aiming for a corporate, high paying job.


Photograph: Chlo&Sam Photography/Adobe Stock


The problem with this society that we live in is that most people have exceedingly high expectations of themselves (and others) and are so desperate to climb the hierarchy, for the sake of making themselves seem 'superior' to anybody else. I'd really hate to burst the bubble, but these expectations for most, are unrealistic to achieve. They say "hard work pays off" or "if you work hard enough, you would get a promotion." It's not necessarily always true, because some companies could play favouritism among employees for even the most bizarre reasons, and there are times when someone who is constantly doing the bare minimum would get the promotion or recognition because of that, over someone who works very consistently hard and tries to put their name out there.


I always felt like I would do myself and the whole world proud by working for a Big 4 company, earning 6 digits a year, and going on business trips all year round. I stopped trying to chase the corporate ladder because I felt like it was going nowhere. It's almost like chasing the carrot and never getting it despite how hard you try. Trying to land in a company that I genuinely did not feel completely comfortable working in and would not really find much passion in, is exhausting.


I'm not saying that you should give up on hope, but really, you should stop comparing yourself to others and do something that you actually like. People who have the audacity to criticise you for what you are already doing, are simply doing it because they feel inadequate about themselves and want to express themselves in a way to make them feel good. How selfish is that? It is wrong to criticise others for how they choose to live their lives, since everyone has different ideas on how they want to represent themselves in society. If we all had similar ideas, could you imagine how boring the world would be? And also if every single person in the world worked in the corporate industry for example, could you envision what would happen if there were no janitors, construction workers, and nurses?


The job industry is alike to biodiversity, if any animal or plant species becomes extinct, all other species will be heavily and negatively impacted.


It's time you appreciate what you have right now as your job. It doesn't matter what job you have. What really matters is that you enjoy the job you have, via aspects such as - you are satisfied with the working culture and its people, you find it rewarding as you are performing your duties for both the company and the community, and the salary is decent enough to allow you to afford necessities and other things that make you happy. The perfect job does not limit itself to a specific job, position, and industry.


Look at yourself in the mirror and say the three magic words - You. Are. Enough.


Repeat if necessary, as much as you like.



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