Why does comparison have such a bad reputation? This is the daily disturbance broadcast with Anthony Funnini 9. Because it often leads to overly dramatic critical, if not downright negative self evaluation. I was five years old when I was told I couldn't move on to kindergarten compared to all my nursery classmates.
The impact that had on my view of self-worth I will never know. Although it did help when my mother told me that it was only because I was too young to be in kindergarten as five. I forced myself to join, she said, or to sit in the nursery class using my influence as it was my mother's own school. But there was no way they put me on the next level given my age.
And then in grade one, and I've shared this before in another podcast, I was admitted to the regular section, not the honors section compared, here we go again, to all my older siblings. Before we go any further on how comparison deeply damaged me. Let's define it, Joey. The act of what looking at two or more things in order to see how they are similar or different.
It can be conscious or unconscious. Conscious like if you are studying two types of germs under a microscope, right, and studying the characteristics of each, comparing both or unconscious. Like last night's guard who looked at me from head to toe. I was looking at him as I did, get assessed by this guard.
I was entering this secure area at the Asian Business Advisory Council Fellowship, Night in Civil. Well, I don't know if he was aware, maybe he was conscious, right? But for me, it looked like a learned habit given his profession as a security guard. So sometimes we're aware, sometimes we're not.
And it's neither good nor bad in itself, comparing. But I think one reason why it's gained such a bad reputation, I mean, what's your opinion on this is because of the reactions. The attitudes people take when they observe gaps between two or more things, right, being compared. And then there's a sense of superiority or, sadly, inferiority among the subjects involved.
Let's be specific. Let's say height. Height is compared. And even if height is not a measure of one's innate core value as a human being, well, okay, maybe in sport, like NBA basketball, to a certain extent it is.
But even if it's not that important to a certain value of a human being, the shorter one, come on, you know this, tends to be less value compared to the taller one. And it often leaves the feelings of one being ahead and the other behind. But it's not the attribute themselves, right? It's the judgment people give the differences between the compared things or people.
It's a judgment that many times gives comparison a bad name. We can't do without it, okay? We can't help but compare. It's a natural, even a supernatural part of us as human beings, creative beings.
I, for example, compare my podcast engagement this month to last month. I compare how I've been running the past days relative to my preparation to my last marathon five years ago. You, when you admit, compare how you feel one morning, given the quality of lack of sleep, as against the past days. We all compare our current jobs and projects, even relationships.
You know, the previous ones. But, but this is the thing. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. It doesn't have to be frowned upon.
It doesn't have to be dreaded at all cost. I mean, think about it without comparison. How can we even measure success? There's got to be some standards, right?
Measure it against. How can we pursue continuous improvement or the journey of, and I quote, becoming the best versions of ourselves? Tomorrow we look at the good, the bad, and the ugly ways comparison has become part of our lives. And how perhaps we can channel future comparison efforts from us, or maybe toward us in a more positive and value anyway?
God bless.