Comparison is the thief of happiness.

I know because I have allowed it to happen to me. It takes a regular practice of self-acceptance to break this habit. I will always be able to find people that appear “better” than me in whatever category I search, and people who appear “worse” — so who really cares?

One popular strategy is to compare yourself to yourself, instead of others. Are you learning? Are you growing?

And one of the most powerful questions I ask myself — do I expect that I will be “better” in a year than I am today? I freaking hope so!

Which tells me that I will always find ways today that I can be better. Which means — I choose to accept myself now, exactly as I am — trusting that my drive to improve will always be there.

Self-acceptance and self-improvement are not on opposite ends of the spectrum — they co-exist!

Accepting yourself makes it so much easier to feel happy for others when they succeed, and to feel compassion for them when they struggle. Which — make no mistake — all success comes as a result of struggle.

Thank you for this article Zulie Rane!