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Transcript

The Danger of Comparing Yourself to Others · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: There is a strange dynamic within the world of writers.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, there is a huge amount of collaboration and community.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We support each other, we buy each other's books, we write books together, we share resources, and we generally try to spread the love.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, it's also easy to be jealous of other writers who we perceive to be more successful than we are.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We wonder why we don't sell the same amount of books or get as much attention as they do.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We may even start to wonder if we have the talent to succeed.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are all sorts of factors at play in our psychology of success and our jealousy of other people.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But one important thing to remember is that we're all on a different journey.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: The writer and comedian John Acuff said it best when he wrote, Don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now it may sound crazy, but it happens more often than you think.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Someone who's only written one book compares themselves to another person who's written ten books.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The first person can't figure out why they don't immediately have the same success as the more experienced author, but the answer is simple.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't been doing it for nearly as long.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing to remember is that wherever you are, there's always people behind you.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Each one of us has a responsibility to help people who are not as far along as we are, just as other more experienced people have helped each one of us.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's really dangerous to spend too much time comparing yourself to others.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It drains your emotional energy, and you start to become dissatisfied with the blessings that you do have.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much better to focus on your own pathway so you can become more successful and help others get further along on their own journeys.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.