Comparison will kill you

I am not perfect; I am not the greatest person, but I am more than fine with that, I am happy.

One of the greatest things that I could have ever realized is that there will never be someone who is more Me than I am, and that comparing myself to others can bring me one of two things: sadness from a feeling of inadequacy or false happiness and contentment. Comparison is the greatest way to feel horrible about yourself; not everybody was given the same abilities, we were not made to be exactly the same. We were made to be different and we were made to do amazing things, but if we're so focused on the fact that we can't do one thing, we may never realize all of the things we CAN do.

Think about it. What if we were surrounded by people who looked like us, dressed liked us, and thought like us? How much could we get accomplished? There is no doubt in mind that something would be accomplished, but I would never want to live in that world. How could we innovate, how would we have forward progress, if we all agree with each other and we are all the same? We were made different so that our world can be better and that we can do great things. Being different shouldn't be a reason for sadness, it should be a call to do something with what makes you so unique. Being different is something you should realize, embrace, and then make something out of it.

One thing that drives me absolutely crazy is when people set a goal to better than someone else or some other team, because being better than someone else doesn't mean anything for YOU and what YOU did. Your goals should be about you and how you can be better than you were, not how you can be better than someone else. Being able to be better than someone else does not mean you did an amazing job, it means that you did better than what someone else did. Base your goals on yourself and being better than who you were; setting intrinsic goals is so much more fulfilling and it helps grow you into a better version of yourself.

This isn't to say that that you should disregard others, that is not my point at all. You should always be learning from those around you, you should always be collaborating and getting ideas from other people. The people around you can help you immensely and they are there to help you grow, never doubt that. The people around you are different, and together you can do amazing things and you can all grow and learn. Your community is there to help you grow and develop, everyone should take advantage of that. Each person has a different purpose, so to try to be someone other than yourself is a waste of your potential and your talents.

At the end of day, all you can do is try your best to be your best possible self. We live in a society that wants to quantify our successes, we live in a society that tries to define us by the amount of games we won or our cumulative GPA, and we need to remember that we are MUCH more than just a set of numbers. If you can say you tried your hardest to be the best that YOU can be, I think you've succeeded for that day. I can tell you from experience you can still get that 4.0 and still feel completely unfulfilled with the work that you did.

So go, be happy, stop comparing yourself to those around you and figure out what you want for yourself and how you can strive to become better than who you were. Challenge yourself and see how much you can grow. Find the people who are passionate and create something bigger than yourselves. Your time is now.

It's far better to have tried

One fear that we all share is the fear of rejection. We don't think about it, but in reality, that is why we don't do a lot of things. We don't think we are worthy or good enough, so we don't even try.

The thing with our fear of rejection is this: WE limit ourselves to what we could have or could be. WE stand in our own way of happiness and success. How? We don't try. We make the decision that we aren't good enough for whatever we want and we don't even try. By rejecting ourselves, we take away the possibility that someone else will reject us.

It seems crazy, but we do it. We would rather say we can't than find out if we can. We would rather spend our time thinking of the what if's rather than getting a concrete answer that we may or may not like. We want to do things that are favorable for us to get the outcome we want. It's nice to win, I'm not saying I like to lose because I really hate it, but when you lose, you at least know what would have happened.

It is far better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. While it may hurt for a little bit, you know what came of it and what you need to improve if you still want it. It's scary to go into something where you feel that you can be rejected, I know it is, but what's the worst that can happen? You don't get the job, guy, girl, or position. But the best thing, you get something that you truly wanted and you can say that you were worthy and you deserved it. You know that you got it because you were qualified, and that feeling is worth whatever heartbreak or disappointment you could get. For me, knowing that I was unable to do something is much better than always wondering what could have been.

So hand over the reigns and go chase your dreams. You could be pleasantly surprised with all that you can do!

Challenge Accepted

We are always going to be challenged by something or someone, what matters is how we react to the challenge. While it may be easy to shirk away from the challenge or dismiss it, it is far more rewarding to take that challenge, get out of your comfort zone, and boldly say: I accept.

While a challenge may seem daunting, I am a huge believer that each challenge is an opportunity for growth. Just think, a lot of people say things will be hard to accomplish or even impossible, but I'm sure tons of people told Michael Jordan that it was impossible for him to be in the NBA when he started, but look where he is. Instead of dismissing his dreams, he accepted the challenge and pushed himself to be better and get what he wanted.

Stop worrying about what might happen if you choose to accept a challenge, because the fact of the matter is, you will never know until you try. By denying yourself that challenge, that opportunity for growth, you guarantee that you won't ever know. You won't know if you'd get that job or that position on the sports team simply because you didn't try, and I don't know about you, but I'd much rather know that I didn't get a position because I didn't earn it instead of wondering if I would have been good enough.

When you face a challenge, the only thing standing in your way is you. Get out of your comfort zone, don't let people tell you what you are capable, get out there and find out! I believe we were made to incredible and amazing things, if we could only get out of our own way. So, get out there and see what you're capable of! You can do it, I believe in you (and if you're willing, I'd LOVE to hear about what you're doing).

The world is out there waiting, what challenge are YOU going to accept today?