The man looks out his back window at his springtime lawn.  It’s looking a little ragged from the harsh winter, but he can see some evidence of green.  He then looks over to his neighbor’s lawn, which appears as a nice plush green carpet.  “Why doesn’t my lawn look like that?”  he wonders.

This is indicative of things that we often do throughout our days without sometimes even noticing.  When we continually compare ourselves to others, we are making comparisons that may lead to envy.  When we see our neighbor driving a shiny new car, and we are nearing 200,000 miles on our car, we might begin to wonder about our own success.

The thing that you must remember is that this sort of way of seeing how you “measure up” is a slippery slope.  When we want to check on the status of how we are “doing in life” we need to look inward.  Looking outward, never tells the full story anyway, and it is an approach where you will never feel fulfilled.

Sure, the man can go have a conversation with his neighbor to find out what he is doing to his lawn, so that he may learn what he might want to do to his own lawn.  However, if he feels there is a sort of “competition” where he needs to have the greenest lawn on the block, he is giving into his own ego.

When we need to improve on something simply because we see someone else with that thing, but only “better” we are giving into our ego, and leading a life of comparison.  Life is not about being “better” than another, but rather “bettering ourselves.”  When we look back on the “game film” at the end of each day, and we evaluate our behavior, we can find areas where we can do better.

That is looking from the “inside” rather than looking “outside.”  Confidence comes from within ourselves, not from our possessions and the knickknacks we put out for “display” for others to view.  A confident person can being wearing no clothes and find their way in life, whereas an insecure person hides until they have everything “just right.”

InspiraCard

Let go of the need to improve on things, buy more possessions, and to compete with those around you, just to feel successful.  The feeling of success comes from within, for at some level, everyone is in fact “successful.”

Written, Sat, April 19, 2014, 9:54 – 10:03 AM MT