Theodore Roosevelt made a great point when he said, “Comparison is the thief of joy”. Unfortunately, the truth of this quote shows up in most of our lives at some point or another. It definitely showed up in our lives early on during our journey. That is until we learned that you have to figure out how to stop comparing yourself to others financially.

In today’s world, it seems as if everything is a competition. We’re always checking to see how everyone else is doing in life and comparing it against our own (especially in this age of social media). I almost hesitate to say that it’s a bad thing because a healthy dose of comparison can actually be used as motivation.

Where we get things wrong is when we let someone else’s (perceived) progress make us feel bad about our own.

We had that problem, and we know that plenty of other people struggle with the same issue.

STOP comparing yourself to others.

At some point, we have all probably compared ourselves to someone else. It’s a habit that many of us have and don’t even realize. If you aren’t careful, these comparisons can get you into trouble.

Not only do people try to “Keep up with the Joneses” by buying things they don’t need, they also try to “Keep up with the Joneses” by bragging all over the place about their financial progress.

What do I mean by that?

If you scroll through certain money-related #hashtags on Instagram, you’ll see pictures of people touting their latest debt payoffs, monthly savings, and accomplishments.

Most people are genuinely sharing just to share, but some people share just to say “Hey, look at how well I’M doing”. And there’s a big trend of people creating brand-new accounts for the sole purpose of sharing their financial journey and interacting with people.

There is nothing wrong with this in theory, but what typically happens is people create these accounts and then get discouraged by what other people are doing and then they end up abandoning their account and their progress.

Creating a special social media account to share your “progress” will not fix your financial problems, but a budget and a plan will.

Be grateful.

Always remember:

Progress is progress.

Stop focusing so much on what you haven’t done. Who cares if you haven’t paid off $60,000 worth of debt or saved up $100,000.

If you’ve only been able to create a budget and start paying your bills on time, that is STILL an impressive accomplishment. Be proud of your progress and your journey.

Be careful that you’re not comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle or end. You have no idea what they had to do in order to get where they are today.

So, always be grateful for what you’ve been able to accomplish and forget about what other folks are doing!

Make & follow your own plan.

I’m a runner, so I’m going to use this analogy:

When you’re running a race, if you constantly try to keep up with the people in front of you you’ll eventually tire yourself out. Most likely, that will cause you to slow down and quit.

It’s much better if you just focus on running YOUR race at your own pace.

The thing you have to keep in mind is that a slower pace is STILL progress.

When we first started our journey, we quickly realized that we needed to come up with our own plan instead of trying to follow whatever advice was the most popular. You don’t have to follow a certain set of steps or various plans created by some finaicial guru.

You need to do what works for you and your situation.

Once you stop comparing yourself to others and trying to follow the trends, you can start making real progress. If your eyes are always watching what other people are doing, you’ll miss what’s happening in your own life.

***

Sometimes, we just need a reminder of what’s truly important. Keeping up with other people isn’t the goal, making progress is the goal.

So, stay encouraged, stay motivated and keep kicking a** Wealthy Friend.

You’ve got this!

— DJ