If I begin another post by asking you to pardon me for the delay, I guess I will start sounding very monotonous. So getting straight into the matter, here I go.
Comparison is one human tendency which has existed for ages. Be it sports, academia, or just day to day life, comparison always makes room for itself. So, the question is why do we compare at first? Before answering to this question, I would like to tell you one thing… In life if something has lasted for ever, there has been some benefits out of it. If there were no benefits, a phenomenon cannot last for this long. Hence I would first throw some light at the positives of comparison.
I am of the opinion that if there is a comparison, no one prefers to lose. The human ego brings out the best performance at times, thanks to comparison. Another way of looking at this would be a feel good factor, which leaves us with satisfaction. If we compare ourselves with someone inferior, quite often than not, there is a gratifying feeling that we are superior to someone. This was understood by the great Gautama Buddha and hence when a man complained that he had no footwear, and how his friend had good footwear, the Buddha asked him to look at a man with no legs.
Positive points bring with them some negatives as well. The biggest negative that comparison brings in is jealousy. Mindless comparison and meaningless conclusion, certainly leads to jealousy. There is no greater evil than jealousy in human life. It is believed that the great Buddha fell a victim to his brother’s jealousy and ultimately died. From the time since great Buddha to a recent survey by a premier US Psychology school shows that there is no real change in human attitude. The survey asked people to select one of the two cases
1. Your salary as $100,000/year while your friend’s salary as $75000/year
2. Your salary as $150,000/year while your friend’s salary as $180,000/year
Shockingly, more than 80% people opted to first case, making a sacrifice of $50,000/year, just to see a friend earning less than them.
Based on the above two paragraphs, I need no rocket science to conclude that there is both positive and negative to the phenomenon of comparison. It’s only up to an individual, as to what he decides to do with it. At this point, I would leave you thinking about where you would place comparison in your life?
4 comments:
Hmmmmm controversial question to ask .... though under some circumstances we may opt to embrace the positive comparison but negative comparisons also have their hey-days in our life which can not be fully abolished but only can be tried to be lessened in intensity.
Thx for your comments!
Yes, I agree that you can make a -ve comparison less intense. But even better is, don't make your reactions so obvious, that the other person is moved out of his comfort zone!
So true! People often compare themselves with others rather than comparing with oneself. Striving to be a better person and in a more comfortable position than one is the previous day should be the mantra that should be followed rather than getting into a pointless rat-race where none seem to enjoy but everyone seeks to win.
@Tejas:
Observed your comment just today! Thx for the note. See, in rat-race, even if you win, you would still be rat :) That's what people don't understand. The only way to improvement is self-assessment!
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