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title: Comparison is the thief of joy
created: 2024-11-18T09:18:12
modified: 2025-08-29T08:30:45
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> _”Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” — William Faulkner_

> _“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” — Jon Acuff_

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比較 = 攀比

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If you want to compare yourself with someone else, study ultra-successful people.

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Compare yourself…

* to who you were _yesterday_ (past self), not to who someone else is _today_
* against your personal benchmarks

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Stop comparing your day 1 to everyone else’s day 1000.

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「社會就是地位的階梯，比較的結果決定處境。」— _The Broken Ladder (破階效應)_

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Don’t follow the crowd. Run your own race. Free yourself from society’s advice, because most of them have no idea what they’re doing.

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The best way to diminish your achievement is to compare it to someone else’s.

When you compare yourself with others, or have the desire to be like other people, you [start doing things that aren't aligned with your true self, abandoning your awesome uniqueness](escape-competition-through-authenticity.md), and [engaging in a competitive zero-sum game](The%20Game%20of%20Life.md).

Every ounce of energy you spend comparing yourself to others is an ounce that could have been spent on developing yourself.

The only time you should look in someone else’s bowl is to see if they have enough.

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# See Also

* [Escape competition through authenticity](escape-competition-through-authenticity.md)
* [Be primarily internally driven](be-primarily-internally-driven-with-intrinsic-motivation.md)