One of my mantras is Don't compare yourself to other people! It's a lesson we've tried to teach our kids ever since they were wee tykes. Admittedly, in real life it's an impossible goal. And sometimes it's unnecessary; gauging oneself against others can on occasion be useful, as a psychological incentive to do better.

But more often than not, cross-comparison gives a bad result. Either

• "Ha, I'm much better than s/he is ..."

and therefore I don't have to work harder; or

• "Ugh, s/he's too far ahead for me to ever catch up ..."

and therefore I may as well stop trying.

A better approach: measure oneself against one's own past achievements, and work toward setting new "personal records".

(see also RadRob's comment on ImpossibleStandards (21 Jun 1999))

TopicLife - 2002-04-06

(correlates: Zhurnal and Zhurnaly, LetTrucksBeTrucks, Comments on ImpossibleStandards, ...)