A crow was living on a tree near a pond. He was spending most of his time in finding food. Even after trying for the entire day, he was hardly getting small creatures and some grain to feed self.
Few Herons were also living around the same pond. To feed the tribe, they were mostly dependent on fishes from the pond. They were standing still in the water and were taking dips to catch the fish. The crow used to observe Herons while hounding from the pond. The crow was envious about the food Herons were getting. Many times, he has envisaged self getting best of the fishes while fishing like a heron.
One fine day, he jumped into the pond and stood like a Heron. He was unsure about the timing to take a dip, but decided to have one. The moment, he hit the water, got stuck in mud. All his efforts to come out of mud went into vain and he ended up loosing his life.
It took his life to learn the important lesson, “Never compare yourself to others, you have no idea what their journey is all about.”
The grass is always greener on the other side – this saying expresses the vicious circle of life. We always try to compare ourselves with others. We always like to be someone else, may be the more successful than us! That’s our way of thinking, that’s our view to the issue. We don’t know all the aspects of THE successful person’s life.
We are probably comparing their best with our worst. Reason? We know all the shortcomings of ourselves, and only focus on the brighter side of the idol. They may also have a darker side of life, hidden to us.
Why do we think they are successful? Do they have more money? Luxurious bungalow? Big car? But, have we checked on their efforts to achieve that? Do we know the life struggles they have been through?
We are probably comparing our beginning with their peak of the life. This only results into stress in our life. This steals the joy of life. Instead of enjoying what we have, we are always worried about what we are missing in the life. We miss to appreciate what we have in our life.
If we are obsessed with comparison, we should compare ourselves with us from yesterday. Today, have we made any positive move in our life? To grow, focus on quality, stress on self satisfaction. Live the value-based life and try to get better with each passing day. Let’s accept that nobody is perfect.
Be original, all other personalities have been already taken!
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."~Booker T. Washington
ReplyDelete