While the temptation to compare yourself to others is on occasion near impossible not to make (especially in the era of curated social media profiles!), today we are going to discuss why both upward and downward social comparisons are effectively harmful to your psyche and progress in life and career. As example, if you compare yourself to someone you deem inferior somehow, you're falsely boosting yourself and then not necessarily adequately motivated to fulfill your full potential or try any harder. If, on the other hand, you compare yourself to someone doing much better than you, you're also liable to be falsely downgrading or trivializing your own progress. Either way, you don't necessarily yield an objective perspective of your own progress or pathway, and you don't depress your true value and potential to compare yourself in the first place.

In today's episode, I'm going to discuss what the effects of comparing yourself to others are in further detail as well as what you can do to stop comparing yourself!

Highlights:

Part 1: From a Brain-Based Perspective, are Social Comparisons Harmful? What are the Effects? 00:19

Part 2: A Brief Primer on Social Comparison Theory 00:45

Part 3: Some Pros & Cons 01:32

Part 4: How to Go About Controlling Social Comparisons 02:44

Part 5: Spending Time with the Right Company (You really are the company you keep!) 03:21

Part 6: Maintaining Your Objectivity - Keep an Updated List of Strengths & Areas of Opportunity 03:58

Part 7: The Merits of a Social, Digital & TV Cleanse 04:49

Part 8: Why Social Media is so Addictive & Potentially Dangerous to Our Psyche/Sense of Well-Being 05:40

Part 9: Glass-Half-Full-Thinking: Importance of Positive Thinking & Looking on the Bright Side 06:14