Tuesday 31 March 2015

Part 2- Comparison -The enemy of happiness


Two beggars were looking at a rich man who had 10 crores worth wealth.He hurled abuses at these beggars and walked away.
One consoled another saying "Just asked God to give both of us ten crores each to make us equal to him. God will soon give us."
The other one laughed loudly. When asked the reason for his happiness, he said "With the 100 rupees I have, I will be richer than him with 1 crore 100 rs"!
That is happiness in his comparison :-)

All of us have learnt about the "Keeping up with the Jones's "Syndrome.
Peer pressure...It's every child's nightmare to be compared to the neighbor's kid who scores more.
Couples' fights start with comparing.
A colleague's promotion leads to sick leave by another aspirant.
From IITs and IIMs to local chai dukaan, comparison exists everywhere.
First we ignore it, slowly, it gets a plush leather sofa in our minds, leaving us restless.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a miserable kid.my family never compared us with any others, but I secretly did,  and belittled myself. I just wanted to make up for all the things I did not have. It made me more sad at the age when I did not have a skill, education or freedom to compete with all.
I slowly came out of that mindset, as a friend said "Every moment you spend on thinking about others, you are taking away from your own life". Back to reality in a sudden break.

Yes, many of us are addicted to comparison, feeling great or bad about it. All we can do is use our minds for our advantage.
Just learn a new aspect from people you compare yourself with. Once focus is shifted to acquiring a new quality, misery subsides.
You will be surprised to see after sometime how you are no longer in that mood to compare yourself or others with anyone in this world.
There will just be learning form the people you envy. Its really wonderful to see great people, telling yourself  "I will soon have his courage" or "I will be fit as her in a month", and doing it.
However competitive this world is, we need to know that we all have a journey of our own called life, all paths are different, but leading to the common goal of being at peace with oneself.
We have been given whatever we need on this journey, provided we plan well and execute those plans.
We have limited options, we cannot change our birth, family, looks, relatives , certain situations etc, none being in our control. But there is no one stopping us from improving ourselves, getting an additional qualification, having more friends, or changing our way of dressing.
God has written the first page of our life, filled some random pages with events, and left many others empty.
Feel free to write whatever you want ,without bothering what others are writing.







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