A Comparative Approach

There must have been instances in your life when you were bashed and shamed for not being as good as some X's or Y"s son/ daughter. So many people have so many times tried to put us down by comparing us to others. It all starts from our family, our own parents won't miss to grab an opportunity to boast about someone else's achievements hoping that we would want to be like them.

As kids we were compared to the performer kids of our class , who were in the good books of teachers and also everyone's favorite. As adults we have always been asked to look upto someone else as a role model and idealise them. One might argue that the sole intention behind this approach of comparing people to others is to make us realize where we stand in life. But how fair is it to put an idea in a young kid's mind that there's something not okay with him? How rational it is to expect from a grown up adult to fit into someone else's shoes?

If not anything it only lowers that kid's morale and ignores the adult's capabilities and questions his very individuality.

What is this obsession of wanting to be like some other person ? Why being yourself is not okay to others? Is it some sort of a sociocultural norm that idealises only a particular type of people and rejects everyone who doesn't fall in that category?

And if it has become a culture, then isn't it a questionable one? How comparing your loved ones to some unknown achiever would encourage them to improve? Is it really a healthy approach to bring a change? These are some crucial questions that we need to answer.

Next time someone walks up to you and starts to brag about a certain person's prodigal qualities make sure you that you remind him/ her that your true power lies in being yourself and that no one else should have the privilege to set the path for you to follow. Because a person's true aspiration is to be the best version of himself/ herself not to be the next version of someone else.