Does this ever happen to you? You are planning for your next big business offering when suddenly you are stopped in your tracks. You found out that Mr. X is offering the same or a similar thing. You look at Mr. X’s offering and start comparing it to yours. Dang it’s good, better than yours, you think. You begin the process of paralysis. The symptoms are depression, lack of enthusiasm, work slowdown, and feel slightly sick to your stomach. Your next great idea goes on the shelf, the victim of your comparison paralysis.
Why do we do this to ourselves? I think because 1. We are human and 2. We don’t want to fail and make a fool of ourselves.
Comparison paralysis is insidious and creeps up on us in a lightning quick swoop. It also must and should be stopped, now.
What do you do to stop it? Here are some questions to ask yourself which are based on The Work, Bryron Katie( www.thework.com ) Consider what Byron Katie, Loving What IS, says about our thoughts : ” A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but the attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.”
I offer you a way to turn comparison paralysis on its head by asking yourself Katie’s 4 key questions:
Is it true?
Can you absolutely be sure that it’s true?
How do you react when you think that thought?
Who would you be without that thought?
If you do some deep thinking about your thoughts when you compare yourself to others, and use the questions to help you delve deeply into the most paralyzing of all of the thoughts, you will find relief and more energy to go forward with YOUR work instead of putting your work on the shelf. There is something magical in delving into the thoughts that stop us and keeps us hostage, we can not only understand them but use them to support us instead of paralyzing us.
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