One of The Biggest Lies About Personal Development

Comparisons can’t make you as the individual become a better person—that’s absolutely one of the biggest lies when discussing methods to help someone develop personally.

Being Comparable Can Motivate

Being comparable can actually motivate an individual to become better at whatever it is they choose to do. 

I say this from personal experience because this is something that anyone who’s ever been a student athlete (or anyone in a competitive field) should be able to relate to when it comes to being okay with comparisons. 

An example would be someone that’s looking to have higher standards with competition or even living.

It could apply to being known as someone that’s habitually late or not putting quality effort into the work they produced.

Whatever the thing is. 

If there’s a baseline of someone you could be compared to, you should also be able to believe in the fact that iron sharpens iron. 

In other words you’re only as good as your comparison in that sense. 

If you can remove your ego from that scenario, you’re able to still grow because you understand that the person you’re being compared to is someone that you are relatable to in some capacity.

Because someone’s able to bring you up in comparison to a single person (or however many people it is against you) it puts you in the same stratosphere at least. 

If you’re able to look past that and grow beyond what the surface is, you’re able to pick apart things that make them great, apply it to yourself, and do more of it, or raise the standard for what is that makes them great. 

That’s one way that personal development can happen through comparisons, which, despite many people, not liking that method of growth, it’s still a very plausible option.

The best comparisons come from…

The best people to compare yourself to are people that are in alignment with what your goals are.

If there’s someone that’s on par (or on track) to reach the same type of achievements you’re looking to get in life, then they’re a safe point of comparison for yourself.

Although it’s generally not the best move to continuously compare yourself, it is reasonable (and can still be beneficial) to do so.

Especially early on in your career.

And this is because while you’re at the beginning of whatever journey you’re on, you will be at a standstill to where to go because there’s so many different possibilities and options with the directions that you can take with your career at the point where choosing and deciding a base or foundational point.

It makes moving forward much easier because you’re already sure what direction you’re looking ahead.