The Comparison Trap

As I talk with students in our Leadership Academy or work with student-athletes 1-on-1, I constantly hear about how they compare themselves to others. Can comparison to others be helpful? Yes, if you are doing it to learn. That’s not the case with 90% of students. Their comparison to others makes them feel worse about themselves…and that will never help them grow into the best version of themselves. Social media makes it easier than ever to fall in the COMPARISON TRAP because we see more about people’s lives than ever before in history. That’s not a good thing.

Watch the video below (~3 minutes) for a very entertaining, but also all too relatable, example of the COMPARISON TRAP!

Did you notice how the first monkey was perfectly fine with the cucumber the first time it received it? As soon as it looked over and saw that the other monkey received a grape…COMPARISON TRAP! Notice how the monkey goes from perfectly content in its demeanor to down right angry. Does the COMPARISON TRAP ever do that to you?

JOURNAL ACTIVITY

I would challenge you to process through the situations where you tend to fall into the COMPARISON TRAP when comparing yourself to others. Is it related to performance? Is it related to skills/talents? Is it related to material things? Is it related to relationships?

After processing through that, write about how you could guard yourself against falling into that COMPARISON TRAP. Next week’s journal activity will include a regular habit to build into your life to help!