You’ve done the home work, the affirmations, the congratulations, the adorations. You’ve stared clear-eyed and clear-headed in the mirror, you’ve told yourself that you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you. And yet, you catch yourself telling yourself the same old negative story. What gives?
Today, I noticed an online news article about someone I went to high school with. We were more acquaintances than friends. I think we might have hung out socially once or twice in the four years I knew him. He’s someone who was on “the slow track” when we were in high school. Socially awkward, he sort of hung around the fringe of society. He was not in any honors classes, didn’t take part in any of the “bleeding edge” things our school was doing in the sciences, never stood in front of the student body to receive a varsity letter for his jacket, or any official award or commendation for that matter, and he certainly wasn’t in the “Who’s Who in American High Schools” book. Just a normal guy, did his time and got out.
I finished reading the article about my acquaintance, and just a few clicks later I find out this guy is a college professor, an FBI / Homeland Security consultant, and a visiting professor at Loyola. In the time that has passed since we graduated, he has put more letters after his name than the alphabet, and has had some papers published.
Of course, this spawns an immediate comparison to my life, and of course, I find myself lacking. It took a good 15 minutes before I checked myself (before I wrecked myself) and reminded myself that comparing myself to others is always, always a losing game. I have no idea (and, let’s be honest, no desire to know) what his life is like, so why would I ever compare myself to him? Since I have had no contact with him for at least a couple decades, I have no way of knowing what his journey has been and no objective way of saying whose life has been better or worse. The comparison is pointless.
Now that I’ve pulled myself out of my introspection trap, we come to today’s question.
What lessons do you find yourself learning and re-learning, over and over?
