APX-IV-0013
“I constantly compare myself to others and always come up short.”
Comparison to others is a losing game because you're always comparing your insides to their outsides. The only comparison that matters is the one between who you are today and who you were ninety days ago.
Your Practice
For one week, every time you catch yourself comparing to someone else, redirect it: write one specific way you are better today than you were ninety days ago. Not better than them — better than your past self. Build the only comparison that is actually yours.
The Architects
“Show me a man moulded to the pattern of the judgements that he utters... By the gods I would fain see a Stoic!... show me one in the moulding, one who has set his feet on the path. Do me this kindness, do not grudge an old man like me a sight I never saw till now.”
— Epictetus, Epictetus, Discourses, Book II.19 (the genuine 'show me a Stoic' lament)