Paper
your insides to someone else's outsides.'
Social media has turbocharged this insidious game of comparison and instead of liberating us, it ties us to these misperceptions of what 'good' looks like. Money, medals, and mentions become the driver of our thoughts and behaviours, but for many, these are the wrong measures and are likely to be at best inflated and at worst made up.
We compound this by creating hybrid super people, where we take the best aspects of several others and combine them into some hyper-being that we then compare ourselves to. If only I could have A's brains with B's body, C's hair, and, oh yes please, D's job and E's comic timing. Maybe throw in F's memory and G's house by the sea. How about H's well-behaved dog and I's bank account? And so on.
But no one is this super being and no one is as calm or successful on the inside as they might project on the outside. Much like a swan, they may appear to be gliding across the surface but underneath their legs are paddling like crazy. Outwardly successful, inwardly miserable.
We can also do the opposite. Comparing ourselves to those that we perceive to be below us, doing less well. This creates a false sense of smugness and again is rarely based on the truth.
Source:
This article was excerpted from the book "The Modern Maverick: Why writing your own rules is better for you, your work and the world" (pp. 45-49) by Ed Haddon, published in 2023 by Bloomsburry Publishing.
Zoom FUO
100%
Undo
Redo
ANSWER SHEET
SECTION 1 (Questions 1-2)
1)
2)
Full Screen
Auto Save every minute
