Dear Younger Fred…comparison almost stole this from you...
Your joy.
You won't notice it at first.
Comparison doesn't walk in loudly… it creeps in quietly.
It starts when you look left… then right…
and suddenly everyone seems ahead of you.
Someone younger gets promoted.
Someone your age buys a bigger house.
Someone you barely know posts a perfect life.
And without even meaning to, you'll start measuring your worth against timelines that were never yours to begin with.
But here's the truth…
comparison has been shaping you long before adulthood.
Growing up, you'll sit at family dinners listening to the aunties and uncles talk about how smart your cousins were…
how they got straight A's…
how they won awards…
how they were destined for great things.
And you'll smile… but inside you'll wonder,
"Why can't I be more like them?"
"What's wrong with me?"
You won't realize it then…
but the seeds of comparison get planted young.
And back then, it wasn't Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook…
it was the dinner table.
It was the whispers.
It was the praise you never heard directed at you.
What you see today on social media is just a louder version of what you heard growing up…
the highlight reel.
But here's what you'll learn later…
Comparison isn't dangerous because of what you see.
It's dangerous because of what you don't see.
You see someone else's success…
but not their sacrifices.
You see their confidence…
but not their insecurity.
You see their achievement…
but not their late nights, their heartbreaks, their private struggles.
We all want the good we see in others…
with none of the work that built it.
And it took you years to realize this:
Your pace was never the problem.
Your story just needed time.
Your growth needed space.
And here's the analogy that will shift everything for you…
There are two ways to have the tallest tower:
You can build yours higher…
or you can tear someone else's down.
That's why comparison feels so twisted…
When someone is struggling, there's a quiet part of you that feels taller.
But when someone rises higher, you suddenly feel smaller.
Neither leads to joy.
Neither leads to peace.
The truth is… the only tower worth building is your own.
Brick by brick.
Skill by skill.
Lesson by lesson.
Intrinsic value over external validation.
That's when you'll learn to stop comparing timelines…
and start trusting your path.
Life is not a race… it's a journey.
And the goal isn't to be ahead… it's to be aligned.
Honestly...I could be wrong here as I am still learning...
but the moment I stopped looking sideways… I finally started moving forward.
The goal is not to supress your feelings... just be aware of them...
If your having a tough day... just remember... your story is unfolding exactly the way it's meant to.
Baaaaam… that's it for today.
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
