Stop Trying to Keep Up with Everyone Else

STOP TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH EVERYONE ELSE

I stayed in the womb for 10 months. I was the last child of 5. I hit puberty years later than everyone else. I didn’t learn how to fully read and write until I was 18. Maybe I was never meant to keep up with everyone else. The lesson I keep coming back to is—that I have to go at my own pace.

GOING AT YOUR OWN PACE

The next step only happens when you’re going at your own pace. Otherwise, you’re stepping towards someone else’s agenda. True progress is authentic, and it’s about living on your own terms. You must get over your efforts to “Keep up with the Joneses.” Always looking at where others are at is an endless trap that prevents you from living your own life. Conforming to someone else’s path is an indication that you are not walking your own path. Of course, there will be similar patterns, and things to learn from others, but your life and your purpose is totally unique.

The fastest way towards manifesting your dreams is at your own pace. Right now, the reality is that you are going faster than some people and slower than others. This will always be the truth. When you accept this, it lessens the burden of trying to keep up or surpass anyone. You start appreciating your own pace and your own efforts. On top of that, your gratitude creates energy that fuels your productivity. You start functioning from a higher level because you are allowing yourself to go at the perfect pace (not too slow or fast).

GETTING TRIGGERED BY OTHERS

By comparing myself to others I easily become irritated, jealous and resentful. I unconsciously project all of my issues onto everyone else because of my unwillingness to accept my fear and shame. So, I find myself trying to break them down, in my head at least, to cover up my feelings and the real problem. The deeper issue at hand is that I lose myself in the fantasy of wanting what they have. In my case, my jealousy is of their success. More accurately, it’s my own mental perception of their success as compared to my personal definition of success. The problem is really about me, not them.

Maybe all of this is necessary so that I can learn the consequences of comparing myself to others, and not being true to myself. How unfair has this been for me, and even more so, for others? I get wrapped up into fantasizing how I think my life should be, and by doing so, I disconnect with myself. As long as I am disconnected with myself, how am I ever supposed to fully connect with anyone around me? The issue incapacitates me from having gratitude for others.

LEARNING FROM OTHERS & BEING AUTHENTIC

The people we interact with are put into our lives to help us see and own the parts of us that we are not owning up to—our disowned parts. Getting triggered by someone else can be a sign that we are repressing part of ourselves. Life is constantly encouraging us to be whole and true. Whenever we try make other people and ourselves into something we’re not, the more we drift away from ourselves. Authenticity is about coming terms with who we are, while allowing others to be themselves. The more authentic we are the more we naturally grow.

**YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO MATTER**

Almost everything around us suggests that our significance comes from “doing” and “having” more. We have created an illusion of who we need to “become” in order to see ourselves as worthy. This means that just “being” who we are isn’t enough, and that we need to do something to be seen and loved, as if we are somehow flawed or broken from the start. Often, we unconsciously think that the solution is to achieve what others have achieved and have what others have. We spend so much energy trying to live up to someone else’s standards and expectations, but the constant striving is all-consuming because it’s not who we are. As long as our worthiness is tied to needing to “become” something or someone more, we will always be obligated to do and have more, and we will never be enough.

The essence of who we are is beautiful. There is no need to do anything in order to matter. This is the proper foundation for movement and change. This is a place of purity and grace, where our intention arises from our being—a place where outcomes and results are secondary.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!