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🍏 You’re Making the Wrong Comparisons

Comparison is the thief of joy.

What we often fail to consider when we compare ourselves with others is that we’re comparing apples to oranges.

These comparisons are unhelpful.

If you go through life comparing yourself to people who are doing drastically different things to what you’re doing, you will only find yourself dissatisfied.

It’s not a like-for-like comparison.

Stop comparing yourself to others, especially those that are doing different things to you.

🖼️ You’re Not Comparing the Whole Picture  

I have a secret question that I ask myself when I’m struggling with comparison:

Are you comparing yourself to the whole picture?

I got this idea from listening to my new favourite podcast: Omar Eltakori’s The Dept.

You can watch the full episode that I’m referring to here:

In this episode, entrepreneur Ryan Pineda shares an interesting reflection that inspired this question.

Ryan reflects on how many successful entrepreneurs defend their 80-hour work-week lifestyles to become wealthy because people like Gary Vee promote that hustle culture.

“Well, Gary Vee’s divorced” rebuttals Ryan.

As I heard this interaction, I found myself identifying similar narratives among many of the “successful” people that we look up to:

• Steven Bartlett’s has had monumental business and podcast success, but his relationship with his parents seems distant

• Elon Musk is one of the most innovative minds in history, but he’s has had 11 children with 3 different mothers

• Britney Spears has sold over 150 million records worldwide, but her story is littered with challenges

This list goes on and on.

Can you think of another example?

I don’t bring up these examples to cast judgment.

I highlight these stories to make it clear that when we compare ourselves to others, we don’t compare the whole picture.

If we were to truly understand everything that someone has gone through to get there, would we really want it?

Would you?

🎋 What Has Bamboo Got to Do With Comparison?

Did you know that Chinese moso bamboo can grow by nearly 1 metre in a single day?!

It noticeably grows day-by-day.

This is the only comparison worth making: you today vs you yesterday.

Instead of constantly comparing yourself to someone else, try comparing yourself to a past version of you.

• Have you grown since yesterday?

• What about last week?

• How much growth have you experienced over the last month?

• What areas have you improved in since last year?

If you’re struggling to see day-to-day improvements, zoom out and compare yourself to who you were last year.

This is the only comparison worth making.

👍 Recommendations

Here are couple of things that I think will complement this week’s newsletter and will help you to get wiser:

1️⃣ The first recommendation is to check out this TED Talk by Dean Furness.

It really hammers home the point from today’s newsletter about how comparing yourself is destructive.

2️⃣ My second recommendation is to join me in making 2024 the year of wisdom by taking part in the Random Acts of Wiseness!

Take part in small daily activities to get wiser every day!

I’ve been doing Instagram Stories most days, talking through each activity.

If you want to take part, check out the remaining activities for January here:

* Please note that these may be affiliate links. Purchasing through these links could support Wisdom Made Easy encourage more people to get wiser.

✍️ Life Update!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Hannah Wilson of Quoted Visually in person!

It turns out that we live just 45 minutes away from each other, so we met up, spoke for 4+ hours about creating online, then went our separate ways.

It was such a fun experience finally meeting someone that I have spoken to almost daily for the last 18+ months!

It’s largely down to her (and PJ Milani of Milani Creative) that I have managed to be so consistent with posting and build such a large community online.

If you like my visuals, you’ll love hers!

You can find her here:

And in case you missed it, last week I shared that I’ll be in London next week to attend an event hosted by Ali Abdaal and Sahil Bloom.

I’m hoping to see some of you there and maybe get a (non-alcoholic) drink afterwards!

If you’d like to join me in getting wiser at the event, you can book tickets here:

Before I share this week’s recommendations, I’d love your feedback!

Do you enjoy this newsletter? If so, please share it with someone! Forward this to a friend, or share it on social media!

If you’ve just received this as a forwarded email, subscribe here:

😊 Thank You!

Thanks for checking out this issue of the WISER Newsletter. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!

Simply reply to this email, and I will get back to you.

Alternatively, just DM me on social media. You can find me here:

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• ✍️ Website

Catch you in the next issue!

Thanks,
Michael

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