Sasha Rashid Coach Clark 12/02/16 Free Your Mind Essay
Comparing Yourself to Others Imagine someone scrolling through social media, valuing themselves based off what they see. Their self-worth constantly wavering after every post they look at. This isn’t a way for someone to be valuing themselves. Their self-worth shouldn’t be based off of other people. When someone compares themselves to others and values themselves based off of those differences, they are only hurting themselves. When someone someone compares themselves to others they are essentially letting other people determine what their self-worth and value will be. Several negative effects can occur when someone is constantly comparing themselves to others. Comparing oneself to others is generally inaccurate seeing as they almost never see someone’s whole truth. The main place where people compare themselves to others is on social media. When they look at someone on social media, whether it be on Instagram, Snapchat or even Youtube, they are only seeing one tiny part of their life. Furthermore, they may not know if the way someone delivers themselves on social media is how that person is in real life. They would be comparing themselves to something inaccurate, since they don’t know if that person is really how they are perceiving them to be. When someone compares oneself to others, they will try to improve themselves to unrealistic expectations, only to be disappointed when they can’t achieve what they were striving for. When they observe people on social media and compare themselves to them, they have no idea if that picture is what they really look like or if it has so much editing that no one could actually look like that. They look at these pictures and think that they should have that skin that perfect or their hair should be that silky and long, when in reality their skin is blurred and touched up in that picture and they have extensions or a wig. They try to look so perfect, they try so hard to look like that and when they can’t get there no matter what they do, they end up feeling disappointed in themselves. They feel like they’ll never be as good as that person, while the person they are trying to be isn’t that perfect. When someone compares themselves to others they are just taking their own joy and happiness away. They are spending so much time putting themselves down that they don’t make themselves happy. They have the opportunities to change though, they can realize they have a lot to appreciate in their own lives. Stepping back and looking at everything they have achieved throughout their life can give them a better understanding about what they should be proud of. When someone becomes confident in themselves and in their achievements, they tend to stop caring if someone else is better than them because they have started focusing on themselves more. Just by becoming more proud of themselves they can get rid of their habit of comparing themselves to others. When someone compares themselves to others, they are only hurting themselves and causing negative effects on their mental and emotional health. Someone’s accomplishments shouldn’t be valued by what others accomplishments are. When someone compares themselves to others, their self worth declines and they don’t realize that everyone is at a different point in their lives. They may not realize that their accomplishments may be milestones in someone else’s eyes. They need to step back and look and appreciate what they have. People often get caught up in trying to be more like other people, but they need to focus on themselves and improving themselves based off their own standards.