Stop Comparing and Start Living!
"...Force our smiles, baby, half dead/From comparing myself to everyone else around me..."
The quote above comes from one of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs entitled, "I've Got A Dark Alley And A Bad idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)". While listening to this song the other day I got the great idea to write a blog post about something that stuck out to me in the song.
When Pete Wentz wrote the song he was suicidal and had tons of "bad" thoughts on his mind (hence the title). It's actually considered to be a form of a suicide note. Now, I talk about suicide and depression a lot but what I never talked about was the feeling of being depressed because of comparisons.
I think one of the main reasons a lot of people get down on themselves is because we compare ourselves to everyone else around us. To be truthful, I'm extremely guilty of this. Most of my years of misery came from me comparing myself to everyone else. Everyone seemed so happy while I always felt sub-par.
My reason for listening to the song was because I've been feeling down on myself lately. I'm the least successful out of all my friends and family. I can work harder than the President of the United States but it seems like none of it will ever pay off. Good things are happening in abundance to everyone else around me (or so it seems) and I'm still stuck in this place I thought I would've been released from months ago. When trying isn't enough, that's when the comparisons come rolling in.
You know that feeling when you thought you were good enough to achieve a goal but after getting shot down enough times you're like, "well maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was" or "maybe I just wasn't meant to be successful"? Sometimes it seems like everyone else is blessed with abilities and you can't even count your talents on one hand. Sucks, doesn't it?!
Comparing ourselves to others only causes self-destruction and self esteem issues (no wonder Pete Wentz tried to commit suicide!). It's a cruel thing to do to yourself and it never helps us get to where we need to be. Instead, it hinders us and hold us back because we're no longer keeping our eyes fixated on our goals but looking at everybody else's. Who am I to preach when I continuously do the same thing? Well, truth is I'm just a nobody trying to follow what I'm telling you all. Comparisons kill who we are and destroys our paths. Let's all try and get rid of comparing ourselves to others and start living our own lives the way we're supposed to (or something like that). It's hard but I'm thinking it's possible!
After all, don't we all want to be known for our hits not just our misses?