181: {Sassy Solo} Comparison is Truly the Thief of Joy

Comparison is the thief of joy. Here’s why you should stop comparing yourself to others and focus on your own journey. 

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We all have our unique paths. It’s easy to look at others and feel like we’re falling behind, but remember: you don't see the full picture of their journey.  

Every business owner, mom, or hobbyist started somewhere. Just like them, you’re in a process of growth.  

I’ve been there—feeling like I wasn’t enough, watching others soar while I struggled with crickets on my posts. But every step counts.  

Instead of comparing, focus on your progress. Ask yourself: what’s one small thing I can improve today?  

Comparison can lead to quitting, but I’m here to keep pushing forward until I reach my goals.  

Remember: you’re not alone in this journey. Let’s celebrate our unique paths!  

Still figuring it out? You’re not alone.  

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Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:01.464)
Hey there today, I want to talk about a topic that comes up in a lot of conversations that I have and that I feel truly passionate about. It's been something that I have worked to overcome as well throughout this journey and, hopes that, and this is something that you are struggling with or dealing with right now. This will be the encouragement that you need to hear. And my message today is about comparison is truly the thief of joy.

So whatever it is that you're doing, whatever niche that you're in, maybe you've got a hobby or you're a mom or a business owner, whatever, fill in the blank. Do not, do not compare yourself to others. There's a couple of reasons why I say that. Number one, you don't know that person's journey. I mean, they may be in year five, year 10 of running their business.

And yes, it may be doing much bigger, much more sales than yours, but that's okay. They had to start somewhere too. And also I truly believe that there is enough for every single person in this world. We have eight billion with a B people in this world. So you are not the only person that can do whatever fill in the blank niche. People wanna do business with you because they like you at the end of the day.

So that's why I always talk about marketing yourself, marketing your personal brand, marketing your business online, because that is the entryway point with people to get to know you is what will happen is they'll start watching you, they'll start following you. And when you're on your online journey for your business or your personal brand, guess what? You're gonna suck at first. I sucked so bad at first. I would put posts out there, I would hear crickets, no one would engage.

No one would vote in my polls, like you name it. I was completely cringe for a long time. So what you see of me now online on social media or with this podcast is been years in the making. Okay. When I first started this podcast, I had 15 listeners in February of that year. And I could have stopped and compared myself and gone down a, I feel sorry for myself or whatever journey.

Caroline Pennington (02:15.66)
or compared myself to other podcasters who had these mega huge, mazillion downloads podcasts. And the reality is those people that I could have compared myself and I honestly did it some days. I can't sit here and say that I'm guilty free of this, cause I'm not, I still do. I have friends in the industry or that I know personally that I hear about them talking about their stats or whatever they're doing and they're way ahead of me. And you know what? At the end of the day, that's okay. I'm still here.

I'm still working at it and I'm not comparing myself to them because if I do, I just get on a rabbit hole and you can spiral out. And sometimes that might end up quitting or stopping whatever you're doing. And I, that's not an option for me. Like I'm going to keep going until I achieve the success and the level of what that I won't because it's my podcast and my platform and all the things. So my message to you is if you're listening to this and you are dealing with this, maybe personally or professionally or whatever.

And you might be sitting here thinking like, okay, Caroline, but I'm a little competitive. So if I hear so-and-so is doing better than me, I used to actually deal with this a lot when I was in my corporate job, because they would release our sales numbers or the revenue that we would do each month. And of course I wanted to be on top. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be making the most revenue, doing the most sales for the company. And by releasing those numbers every single month, the company I worked for actually drove a lot of competitiveness, which was healthy.

But also I had to make sure in those months I was number five or number three, that I wasn't just going to be defeated. just kept going and I kept pushing myself to get better and better and better. And I had to keep in mind not to compare myself to my peers because maybe they had a deal that was in a long lead line and finally closing. And that's why the number was so high or maybe they didn't go on vacation that month. And so they were there working extra hours to make those deals happen or whatnot. So every scenario is different.

So just don't compare yourself to others. And that doesn't only apply to business. It applies to online and social media. It's really easy these days to go down a rabbit hole when you see people doing really cool stuff. Social media is a highlight reel. Thankfully we're getting back to more reality and more messiness, which I love. I couldn't stand the, you know, the perfect little pictures and whatever. That just is so boring to me. But now just...

Caroline Pennington (04:35.608)
Promise me this, don't compare yourself to anyone else because you don't know their journey. Only compare yourself to you. And what that means is if each day you can do one thing better, one teeny little thing better, you can compare yourself and look back to what you were, what you did yesterday or last month or last year even. And that's my message to you today is comparison is truly the thief of joy. And so just don't do it.

Until next time, don't forget to subscribe and share.