I don’t usually post on Thursdays, but I wanted to be vulnerable and share something today that I’m struggling with. Because if I’m right, I think many of you struggle with it too. In fact, I think we would be lying to ourselves if we didn’t all admit to struggling with this at one point in our lives.
Comparison.
Yup. There, I said it. I woke up this morning and there it was, staring me smack in the face. Part of my morning routine, which I’m a little embarrassed to admit, is checking my social newsfeeds. If I’m perfectly honest, it’s the last thing I check at night and one of the first things I check in the morning. I’ve always said that I have a love/hate relationship with social media and it’s because of THIS VERY THING. But now that my blogs biggest platform is social media in general, I feel like I’m glued to my screen all the time and comparing has become all to easy a thing to do.
The problem itself isn’t with social media, though The problem is with us…errr…me. We all love sharing. We all love seeing other people’s lives. The problem though becomes when we become dissatisfied with our own lives by comparing it to others. When we think others have it so much better than we do. When we start feeling the need to compete with what we see being projected on social media.
We’ve all heard it a bunch before that social media is where people share their highlight reel. It’s not that it’s fake, it’s just that it’s our best picture of our day. I’m not taking selfies when I first get out of bed and I’m a hot mess. NO. When do I take a selfie? When I just had my hair done and my make-up did and I’m wearing clean, kid-snot-free outfit! Not my jogging pants! But is that what most of my life looks like? NO. Rather it’s the opposite. But that’s not glamorous and that’s not really what people want to see now is it?!
This morning while cruisin’ my feeds, after a couple weeks of living in sweat pants, hospitals, cleaning barf and other unmentionables off the floors, doing copious amounts of laundry and barely having 5 minutes to myself, I see my friends who are on vacation enjoying the white sandy beaches. I see people who are just falling in love in Paris. I see another blogger who just hit 50,000 followers. I see how someone won a huge amazing prize that I entered to win too, but clearly didn’t. I see friends who are getting way more opportunities then I am at the moment. I see someone share another friend/bloggers post, but they didn’t share MINE! I see all of that. And what do I immediately start doing? Comparing. WHY?! Why do we do that?! There becomes almost this angst in my spirit where I start feeling less-than because I know my life looks nothing like those lives.
As I keep staring at someone else’s seemingly more picture-perfect journey than me own, I become ungrateful, annoyed and even jealous. I want to go away on a vacation! I want a big, amazing blog! I want opportunities! I’m working my butt off, why am I not having the same kind of success that they are?! And I become unhappy and discontent.
So today, as I write this, I’m not writing to say I have all the answer about how to deal with that. But rather, I’m writing to say, we are human and we all deal with this comparison crap. So my prayer today is simply, “Lord, forgive me for comparing and being unsatisfied with the journey you’ve put ME on. Forgive me for not treasuring all the amazing things you have blessed ME with while looking at other peoples blessings and being envious. Help me stop the comparison game and be completely content with where I am planted.”
The struggle is real folks. But the struggle is not social media itself. The struggle lies within ME. And it’s how I choose to perceive it all and let it affect me where the problem comes in. We shouldn’t be caught comparing and more specifically, competing with other for more popularity, better homes, better jobs, bigger blogs, etc. We should just be thankful for our own journey, focus on what matters most and bloom where we are planted!
Love & Blessings,
