I think a lot of people carry with this them this constant comparison thinking mindset. Constantly comparing. This can be a very healthy and logical way of thinking, it quickly allows you to judge a situation and often times leads to a correct decision making criteria. However, left unchecked, you are constantly in a state of agitation because you are in this trap of constantly comparing yourself to others or to some impossible ideal.
What is worse is when the impossible ideal becomes this nebulous and undefined concept that you compare against. You spend your everyday comparing against a feeling or a thought of the “way things should be.” The problem is that thought process is really elusive and you can never reach it. So you are constantly comparing your current situation against an ever moving target and an impossible ideal. I have witness, and been victim myself, to the process of attributing this type of thinking to “God” or Godliness. This wrecks havoc on you because now you have supplanted the idealistic concept of spirituality with an ever impossible, ever changing comparison source.
Left alone and you will find yourself in a state where you are constantly comparing your life against an impossible and very vague feeling of they way things should be that will never materialize. Usually what happens is that what you do is good enough and in fact, better than what most people do, but you do not give yourself credit for it and spend most of your days in misery because of not reaching this nebulous, lofty ideal that does not exist.
Better, just stop doing the comparison thing. Identify it clearly, recognize when you are doing it and just tell yourself to STOP.
Guy Reams