Many people in today’s technologically advanced society are guilty of the following: comparing your lives to others. Sometimes you do it subconsciously and other times you do it deliberately. There is even a psychological term – seems to be one for everything – for what occurs when you compare your lives to others and that term is FOMO: fear of missing out. Fear of missing out typically occurs when you log onto your social media accounts and see that individuals are doing things you wished you were doing.

First off, you need to realize that people often times put their best foot forward when they are talking with others or are on social media. If you were to spend the day talking to the particular individual you compare ourselves with, you would see that they themselves are struggling with a variety of things: depression, illness, anxiety, or financial situations.

Taking control of this habit will help you tremendously in the future since as you age, the things you can compare yourself with others gets larger: job title, income level, house size, number of children, relationship status-the list goes on.

So, why should you stop comparing yourself with others? Here are 3 reasons:

1. Realize that what people post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and a variety of other social media mediums are not true depictions of who they are or what they go through every day. People often times depict the positives of their lives because it is what sells. If you were to become ill, you will quickly realize that people will only care about your situation for so long only because happy things excite people more than sad situations.

Remember that social media is just a tool that should be used to stay connected with old classmates, friends, family, and, possibly even, coworkers.

2. Realize that what you do, great or small, is unique to yourself. You may sing on your spare time and that may seem boring to others, but if you derive enjoyment from it then that is all that should matter.

3. Realize, that living big – going on vacation, having nice cars, and a big house – does not entail a sound financial situation or life.

According to investmentwatchblog.com, ” America looks rich. Big cars, big houses, big military. We paid paid for it with BIG Debt: Credit Card Debit, Student-loan, mortgage, National Debt!”

Furthermore, Nerdwallet states on their website that “The average household has $130,922 in debt — $15,762 of it on credit cards. ”

If you decide to compare, compare your today’s best to your yesterday’s to see if you are improving in your goals.





Remember this, there will always be someone out there who is taller, prettier, smarter, and even darker in skin complexion than you are.

But you can limit how much comparison you do, but it will require practice. But be grateful for the day to day activities you partake in.