Self-image and self-perception are very powerful things. The way we think about ourselves affects everything in our daily lives. When you’re in constant battle with yourself internally, it can be draining and detrimental to any sort of success you wish to have. When you begin to compare yourself to others, that can become a slippery slope. Everyone’s journeys are different and comparing yourself with other people and how they progress can build toxic and self-defeating emotions such as jealousy and resentment. Instead of comparing yourself to others who are achieving greater levels of success than you are at the moment and becoming jealous or resentful, surround yourself with these types of people and give them value. Adding value to other people will reflect positively on you and propel you to greatness.
Collaboration over competition
Most of the time, people look at those who are more successful than them in a negative light. Most of this stems from jealousy and is a negative reflection of how they feel about themselves. Instead of harboring resentment both inwardly and outwardly, try to spend time with and emulate those who are further along than you are. Collaboration over competition always. The best way to do this is by trying to add value to those people’s lives you wish to surround yourself with. Maybe there is a task they can take off their hands. See what you can do to make an impact in their lives in a positive light. Bringing value to others will reciprocate back to you. Give more than you take. Spreading value is like a gravitational pull for success and successful people. People will recognize you and want to spend more time around you if you are constantly looking for ways to help them. Genuine care for others and their dilemmas will go a long way.
Being comfortable in your own skin
One of the biggest hurdles for people to overcome is to be comfortable in their own skin. Building confidence, not getting shaken when things don’t go your way, and taking life’s lessons and applying them to your world are all great ways to increase self-perception. When you are constantly comparing yourself to others in a negative light, it can be a real confidence killer. The better way to go about your approach when dealing with others who you wish to be like is to emulate them and their habits. Ask them intuitive questions and learn valuable lessons from their experiences. Your confidence will build as you gain more and more experience and you will begin to feel more comfortable.
Establishing a baseline of what defines a role model
When most people start to compare themselves with others, it is almost always in a negative light. They follow social media “influencers” and Tiktokers and drain their confidence and self-esteem by comparing their lives to what appears to be a “perfect” life of a social media influencer. In reality, those people are simply posting the highlights of their lives to create drama and attention around them to exploit their followers to buy and do things that they support. This creates toxicity and can really suck people into a rabbit hole, especially in this day in age where this is more prominent than ever. A true role model is someone that is an actual human being that goes through and overcomes struggle and is open to sharing these experiences and the lessons they’ve learned with others. They’ve found their success through genuine hardship and their intentions are more pure in the sense that they want to give back to people by teaching them a useful skill that will in turn make them successful while also indirectly benefiting themselves as well. They have gone through failure and know what it’s like to reach the highest highs and sink to the lowest lows. Those are the people with the most insight, knowledge, and experience that you can really look up to and take lessons from on your own journey. Of course, everyone’s path is going to be different, so you can only take the lessons these role models have learned in their experiences and see if it has application in your own life. At the end of the day, a role model should be someone who you aspire to be like because of who they are and humanity they show through the struggles they’ve been through. Those types of people are the most relatable and easy to learn lessons from that you could possibly find. Comparing yourself to these types in the light of “How can I achieve what he has achieved?”, rather than, “I wish my life was more like that person”, is the best way to take advantage of what a worthy role model has to offer without falling into the pit of beating yourself up because you aren’t that person. There is a fine line you need to be aware of and staying on the right side of that line is crucial for you to remain on the best path possible.