I’m listening to Mel Robins, ‘The LET THEM Theory’. One key idea that she shares is that of compassion and how we get jealous of other’s successes rather than letting them be successful and understanding that we can seek that same success too. I’m on Chapter 10, and while she hasn’t explicitly said this adage (yet?) I keep thinking of it: ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’.

Meanwhile, her message is that comparison should drive us to be better ourselves. This is admittedly harder to do than to say. Mel says,

“Using the Let Them Theory, you’ll be able to recognize when comparison hits, and you’ll understand that it’s trying to teach you something: Jealousy is a doorway to your future that just cracks open, and it’s your job to recognize when it happens and kick the door open and walk right through it. When you let other people lead the way, you’ll realize that beneath all the fear, and excuses, and time that you’ve wasted, there’s the life you’ve wanted all along. And right now, the only thing that is holding you back from taking control of your life are the excuses…”

So the question is, do we let comparisons steal our joy and diminish our drive, or do we use compassion as a motivation to maximize our beliefs that we can be successful too, and feed the drive to be better?

Do way stay jealous or do we let others’ successes help us find our own way to success?