Let’s Stop Comparing.

Did anyone else watch the NYC Marathon on TV this past Sunday? I watched bits of it and was so inspired.  I know I will never-ever-ever run as fast as the top female finisher! She ran 26.2 miles in 02:25:07.  Amazing!  To put things into perspective, I’m hoping to finish my first half marathon, 13.1 miles, in around 2:30.  Of course, running is her life, not a hobby.  She’s an elite athlete and to compare myself to her, for any one of us to compare ourselves to her, would be wrong.  It’s unrealistic and not healthy.  So, why do we still do it?  We may not compare ourselves to top athletes, but we compare ourselves to other women.  We’re bombarded by stories on social media about all these amazing success stories and we start to feel bad about ourselves.  We start to second guess ourselves, second guess our own progress.  I know it happens to me.  I’ll be like, “It only took her 3 months to lose 30 lbs, it took me a year!  What’s wrong with me?” “She can do how many pull ups? I just want to do 1!” I could go on and on, but you get the point.  

Let’s stop comparing ourselves to others.  The only person we should compare ourselves to, is ourselves. Let’s focus on becoming better than we were, not better than so and so.  We are all at different stages in our lives and journeys, so why compare our middle, with someone else’s end.  How do I know what it took for that lady to lose 30 lbs in 3 months! Maybe it was hard for her, maybe it was easy for her.  I don’t know.  I only know that it was her journey, her story, her moment.  Not mine.  It took me over a year to lose 30 lbs and I’m ok with that.  Why? Because it’s my story, my journey.  

Let’s look back at who we were last year, last month, last week, and be proud of the progress we’ve made, the goals we’ve reach, and the hurdles we’ve overcome.  Not just in fitness, but in life too.  That is much more rewarding and much more realistic.  Let’s be happy with ourselves.  Let’s live our life fully and wholeheartedly.  Let’s promise to stop comparing ourselves to others and focus on ourselves this week! Write down 5 things you’ve done this year that you are proud of and start feeling good about yourself.  Deal? Deal!