Tag: learn

Comparing yourself to others

Stop comparing yourself to others. You think that you’re several rungs down on a ladder from them (or several rungs above them) when, in reality, you might not be on the same ladder! If your goals are different from theirs (which everyone’s goals are to a degree) then how can you say that you are ahead of or behind someone?

Comparison is the thief of joy. When you look at others and envy their position, what you often fail to realize is how lucky you are. No matter what your circumstances, you have it better than someone else. Use your past experiences to your advantage. Be ethical about it, understand what privileges you’ve been granted, but don’t feel bad about it.

Be grateful for where you are in life and what you have, but don’t be complacent. Always strive to be better, to help more people, and the results will come. You’re not doing yourself any favors by comparing yourself to others. You can use other people as examples for inspiration or even for what decisions NOT to make, but avoid comparing your actual life to others. What you see on social media is only part of their life.

Finally, remember that you can always learn from anyone – whether they’re older or younger than you, make more/less money than you, have different beliefs/core values, etc. Keep an open mind and remember that even if you disagree with 99% of what they say, if you try to understand their point of view it will open your mind to new ways of thinking.

Education

School is a way to earn a degree, but it is not the only way to earn an education. There are other ways to learn, including to learn by doing. If you’ve graduated from school, or if school isn’t your thing, that doesn’t mean that you’re done learning. Learn by doing. Give yourself deadlines. Start moving and figure it out along the way. Go experience things. Get stuff done. Use your time being out of school to your advantage.

Protecting your time

Be intentional with your time. Protect it…not just from others asking you to do things, but also from yourself. It’s easy to binge watch a show. Be careful so that the 30 minute show doesn’t become a two hour watch session. It’s easy to consume social media. If you keep a social media account, make sure that you’re not mindlessly surfing through their carefully crafted content specifically targeted at delivering the most compelling stories to keep you on their website.

How can you be intentional with your time where you’re doing something to improve your knowledge AND what would make you feel better (long term)? Instead of consuming shallow, surface level content (including tv shows, social media posts, and even many magazine articles), try reading something with more depth.

Start small. Try reading 10 pages per day (from a book). Over the course of the year, this will equate to 3,650 pages per year. If an average book is 250 pages, you will have read between 14-15 books for the year! If you do this for ten years, you will have read 140-150 books.

So many people quit reading or only occasionally read after graduating high school or college. Be different. Set yourself apart from the collective average. Use your time intentionally. And then use your newly acquired knowledge to further yourself in your career or change your life for the better.

Mindset

Work on having a growth mindset, where you’re open to the possibility of changing and growing your abilities. Just because you can’t do something right now doesn’t mean that you’ll never be able to do it. The only way that you know for sure that you won’t be able to do something is if you stop trying to improve yourself. The same can be said if you are already good at something. If you have a fixed mindset, you may think that you don’t have to try because you’ll always be good at that thing. But if you stop working at something because you feel your abilities are “fixed,” you will soon be surpassed by those who are working harder than you.

So how do you work on having a growth mindset? Understand that everyone has to start somewhere. Some people will naturally have more ability than others, but no matter where you start, you can always improve if you’re willing to make an effort. Realize that if you want to improve, you’re going to have to push the boundaries of your comfort and, as a result, you’ll fail often. Don’t be afraid of failure. Embrace it and use it as a stepping stone towards your eventual success. It can only truly be considered a failure if you quit afterwards. Otherwise it’s just more experience for you to learn from.