Way too many fall for this. It’s such an easy thing to do – to highlight great things about other people and how we fall short in comparison.
It’s an easy transition to hyper competitiveness, but that’s a losing game.
There’s always going to be someone “better” than you in some area and your life will forever be dictated by those outside of you. You will have virtually created a leash for yourself attached to other people.
You can’t win at this game. You can’t be all things to all people.
What’s even worse is that all this insecurity is a clue as to what your filter of reality is. You’re always looking for what’s missing in your life. You’re always looking for the lack and that’s such a crappy way to live life. You’re always tearing yourself down with each interaction you have with other people.
Now if you still find yourself bit with the competitive bug that accompanies insecurity, the proper way to harness its is to realize you should use it to fulfill your own potential, to be the best you can be with what you’ve got.
That’s all you have to do and if you can do that, you will have started going on your own authentic journey.
Insecurity will become a thing of the past.
Perhaps the most ironic example to use to illustrate all this is Hollywood.
It’s easy for actors/actresses to feel insecure when they’re not respectively 6 feet tall with handsome looks or a stunning young blond bombshell with killer curves. It’s easy for them to think that they’ll never get any roles because they don’t measure up to those profiles but that’s not true.
A lot of roles in Hollywood don’t fit that profile.
There’s a whole spectrum.
Trying to be something you’re not will guarantee you won’t find the right role for you.
Be who you are. There’s treasure in that. Be the best you can be. Load up on what makes you unique.
Other people will do the same and that’s their thing. It has nothing to do with you.
When you realize everybody’s different in their own way and that it makes no sense for you to strive to be that “difference”, all that insecurity seems to melt away.
You’ll admire people for fulfilling their own potential and you’ll be inspired to do the same for yourself.
The truth is, we’re all insecure about something and if we think we can fix it, we’ll be set, yet another insecurity will rise. It never ends. It’s the story of the human condition.
The trick is to be comfortable with the incompleteness of it all. To just do the best you can in building yourself up. Work hard at becoming the type of person you know you can be and do the things you know you’re capable of, fulfilling the unique potential that lies within you.
I bet there’s a comic where people are standing next to each other at a party, one admiring the other but the thought bubbles reflecting that the person being admired is actually envying the person doing the admiring.
What we’re really looking for is confidence – DESPITE the fact that we’re all trying to fix whatever our “it” is.
If we can get that, insecurity isn’t really a problem.
We get that by identifying what’s unique and great about us and doing our best to maximize that potential.
To not try to be something we’re not.
If you’re an orange, be an orange. No need to feel insecure around a banana.
Insecurity comes from an orange thinking it’s not long enough or doesn’t have as much potassium as a banana.
It makes no sense.
We admire and strive to live up to the potential of others, yet we ignore the great things and enormous potential that lies within ourselves.
