How to eliminate comparison despair

Here’s something I notice about people who are trying to build businesses or achieve some kind of major goal. They tend to focus on STRATEGY, and this causes them to internally freak out CONSTANTLY. Inside there is ENDLESS insecurity, second-guessing, and self-doubt.

And here’s why.

Strategy ultimately ends up in the doing. It creates the plan for the actions we think we should be taking to get to our destination.

But on the way to formulating strategy people often skip a step. And it’s a MAJOR step. It’s the most important step.

If this step is skipped, the only way forward is to compare. Look around at what everyone else is doing to succeed. What tools, techniques, strategies are THEY using? Then you try them and they don’t work the same way. The secret is you don’t ever quite know how they are working for others either, because there is much beneath the surface you don’t see.

Also, strategies are malleable, so as soon as you implement a strategy you saw someone else do, chances are they have moved on to a new one already and you fall further behind the 8 ball.

Here’s the secret truth.

Strategy is ALWAYS born of comparison. But the best strategies don’t come from comparing yourself to OTHERS. They come from comparing yourself to your IDEAL. You need to enter a space where you can see who you truly want to be.

And the trick is that we’re largely taught to ignore and work against this ideal through societal conditioning. It’s like many of us are taught to deny and swim against our true essence.

And so we compare ourselves to others and despair, instead of comparing ourselves to the person we truly want to be, because we’ve been taught there’s no place for it.

I call the process of getting clear on that IDEAL exploring the Realm of Purpose, and there’s NOTHING like the conversations that happen around that. Leaders and creators tell me it’s unlike any conversation they have EVER had. Doubt, insecurity, and comparison despair melts away. Vision, confidence, clarity, and optimism takes its place.

From there the strategy is easy. It’s infinitely malleable and endlessly regenerates. It’s true, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the strategy often is. And rebuilt. And rebuilt.

The strategy serves the purpose. Don’t get that backwards. That’s where all the doubt comes from.