How to not feel envious of your peers

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today” - Jordan Peterson

I came across this quote and would like to share it with all my students and readers.

Very often, when we compare ourselves to others, it can be quite demoralising because there will always be someone out there who is smarter, earning more, more attractive etc. than us.

However, that is a very narrow way of looking at things because there may be other aspects to other people's lives that we do not see. (e.g. if my friend is earning much more than me, it could be because he works much harder, is under a lot of stress and suffers from insomnia and constant headaches - We often see the achievements but not the struggles!)

Hence, comparing yourself with others is usually not made on a "fair" basis and I find that it is much better to compare your current self to your past self.

Instead of demoralising yourself by comparing to others, celebrate how far you have come in your personal growth story.

If you find that you haven't come far enough, set some goals and make sure you work towards them so that when you look back 1 year later, you can be proud of the progress you've made.

In the end, everyone runs their own race, each with their own unique set of circumstances.

Wishing everyone good progress in 2023!

- Mr Tong