Blog — Kati Whitledge

Unhealthy Comparisons

We are constantly told to avoid comparison. Theodore Roosevelt even has the famous quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy”.

I believe this is healthy advice when it comes to one’s surface aesthetics. Meaning, it’s not going to serve you if you compare your clothes to your neighbor’s clothes. And you’re not doing yourself any favors to compare your shoes, your purse, your makeup to those of your colleague’s. Or comparing your car to the one next to yours when you pull up into your parking space at work. Those are all surface aesthetics, the outside appearances. In my opinion, completely unnecessary. In these instances, comparison is the thief of joy, because there will always be someone with bigger or better.

Beneficial Comparisons

However-- Comparison can also serve as a tremendous benefit for achieving success. You may have always wanted to start your own business, or land the biggest sale, deal or agreement of your career, but you’ve noticed there are a lot of similar businesses already out there, or there are huge successes already in that area that you’re working on.

Instead of giving up or feeling defeated, you can use those as fuel to motivate your goals. Meaning: comparison can be used as proof that you can do it too.

Examine Your Mindset

Are you comparing your personal success to someone else’s and therefore setting restrictions on yourself? For example, “Oh, they’ve already reached that, so there’s no way I could also.”

That’s the challenge I have for you today: stop allowing those kind of thoughts to enter your mind. But rather, if you compare and think, “Wow, they just landed that huge sale” or “Look, that person just opened that new business”, turn that kind of comparison into, “That means I could do it too.”

My Final Challenge to You

If you have a dream, my challenge for you is to take a look at those who have achieved similar success.

Then start comparing yourself. What are they doing (or what did they do) that you can do too?

To summarize, it really comes down to your mindset. Do you have the mindset of abundance or scarcity? If you look around, I believe you’ll see that the possibilities are endless. Companies like Uber, for example, are redefining what is possible. They didn’t say, “We can’t do that, that’s not possible.” They said, “There has to be a better way”.

So if you see that others have done it already, or others have achieved success, use comparison as proof to fuel your success. You can do it too!

It has been many years in the making for me to really feel like I can identify my life’s purpose. I feel like many of us find ourselves in a hamster wheel, just doing the same things every day, on and on and on. And then there’s this lack of fulfillment inside of us.

Recently, I came across some advanced education, and I heard some very profound questions that really impressed me. I sat down and wrote out the answers to these questions, and it brought such clarity to me. So I want to offer them to you today. I hope that they’ll help you find clarity as well.

What brings you energy?

What is it that energizes you?

Think about that. You do a lot of things every day and have a lot of commitments. And some of those things will drain you! And you might start to think, “Well I slept great last night, but after doing this for twenty minutes, I feel like I’ve been here for five hours!”

And part of this is realizing what you need to give up. But, we’re going to focus on identifying your purpose; what gives you energy?

For me, it’s people! Being a part of an event with people, leading people. Music—singing and dancing—also brings me energy. Fitness gives me a ton of energy. Education—when I’m learning or teaching—also brings me energy. When I’m organizing or planning new projects, I have a ton of energy.

So, take some time to think about it, and discover what that is for you.

What is important to you?

Relationships are huge for me. My personal relationships with Jesus Christ, family, employees, colleagues, friends, my husband, my church. Health and fitness is also important to me; building muscle strength, clean eating, flexibility, dancing. I also believe that having a flexible lifestyle is important to me. It gives me the opportunity to meet new people, attend educational events, and travel.

What else is important to you?

What tasks, activities and environments are you 100% present for?

What activities or tasks that you’re doing are you 100% present for? Once you take a few minutes to brainstorm some of those, I believe that you, like me, will find some common ground. You’re going to start noticing that on each of these lists, there are a lot of similarities.

I’m also going to throw one more question in as a bonus.

What do people reach out to you for?

For me, it’s a lot of business advice, or people asking, “How would you handle this situation?”

What is that for you? Maybe you haven’t been paying attention to that, but when people start reaching out to you, consider jotting it down. And over the course of the next month or two you’re going to start to see some similarities.

Here’s one last neat thing to think about: I believe that I’m made up by these specific talents and gifts, and I ask myself: How can I take who I am and serve the world?

Is it time for you to ask yourself the same thing? Is it time you identify your purpose?

Is Comparison a Good Thing?