Greatest Lesson Learned

The greatest lesson that I have learned from someone else is to compare yourself only with yourself. Before starting university, many schools held these meet and greet events intended to give you a brief synopsis of university. I attended them and one of the advisors from UBC said something that has stuck in my mind till now. While explaining something, he said you shouldn’t compare yourself with others; you should only compare yourself with yourself. When I first heard this paradoxical phrase, I didn’t think it made much sense. It doesn’t seem possible because we unconsciously compare several aspects of our life with other things out of own spontaneity. But after giving it some careful thought, some rationality developed. It’s rational to say that you will always be better than someone else, yet someone else will always be better than you. Thus, by comparing yourself with others, it doesn’t necessarily give you an accurate or good comparison. Sometimes it may motivate you to strive harder, but other times it may actually hinder you from excelling depending on how it’s interpreted. Rather, by comparing yourself with yourself, there is more consistency. You can always compare yourself with the things you’ve done and accomplished in the past to what you’re doing now and seek for any improvements or new goals. This gave me a different perspective and it helped me interpret and accept things in a more flourishing way.