You know those moments when you catch yourself comparing yourself to others?
You know how it goes right? “They know more people than I do”, “They are more successful than I am”, “They are better at articulating their thoughts than I am”, or “They look so much cooler wearing that military-inspired look than I do” (okay, the last one was just a way for me to inform you of this fall’s hot trend!)?
Don’t you wish sometimes there was a pill you could take to just get those thoughts to disappear…stat…permanently?
This week I was prepping for an audition I have in 3 days to be a lead trainer at the coaching school I was trained at and I was dying for that pill. A few hours into my self-worth bashing and all of a sudden I started to laugh. Out of nowhere, I had images floating in my mind of cats wanting to be dogs, cheddar cheese wanting to be Havarti and a lemon wanting to be a lime! As absurd as these sound, it’s no sillier than what we do! You will NEVER be like someone else no matter how hard you try (your unique fingerprint just won’t allow it!), and thank god for that!
Imagine how boring it would be walking into a Baskin Robbins and seeing that all 31 buckets in the freezer were the same flavor. Or if you had a meeting with your colleagues and every single one of you had the same thoughts, emotions and ideas. That’s just an innovation buzz kill.
You have the pill to stop those thoughts, and it’s called the Perspective Pill. When you start to see things in a different way (specifically, yourself!) you will start to recognize that you actually DO have a lot to offer just by being who you are.
As Wayne Dyer said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change.”
Embrace what makes you unique, love your quirks, and make noise with your own ideas – the world needs diversity. As for me, I’m embracing my auditions Seema Style!
Your mission this week: Pop the Perspective Pill. When you catch yourself comparing yourself to others, stop and ask yourself, “What makes me unique?”. Short. Simple. Profound.
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Seema Sodha