The problem...

In today's society, especially during the ongoing pandemic, everyone and their dog is spending more and more time online, and specifically on social media. Whether you're looking for inspiration, getting caught in down a wormhole of viral videos, or just mindlessly scrolling to kill time there's a good chance that you, much like myself, are guilty of this as well. Sure this can seem beneficial and even fun at the time, but what are the lasting effects?

Odds are that at some point you've seen someone on Instagram, Tiktok, etc. and thought to yourself "I wish I could do that" or "I wish I looked like that." This in itself is an issue, but also leads to another bigger issue which I will touch on in a moment. As far as the issue on the surface goes, comparing yourself to someone else will never work in your favour. We as humans have been conditioned to think more highly of other people and less of ourselves, meaning that any time we compare ourselves to anyone, we're likely going to think less of ourselves.

The deeper/bigger issue in comparing ourselves to what we see online is that not even those individual's look like what they are posting. Chances are if you scroll through someone's feed on any social media platform, it will be full of their highlights, best angles, and heavily filtered content - in many cases even photoshop is used. Admittedly, some people have started talking about and posting their "unflattering" angles, and props to them. But more often than not the person you are comparing yourself too doesn't even look like what you are seeing.

The solution...

It may sound over-simplified, but the best way to stop comparing yourself to others is to start comparing yourself to...well...yourself. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, etc. and emphasize the progress you have personally made. Nobody else is like you, so to compare yourself to anyone else is to do yourself a great disservice.

The face in the mirror is the only person you should be concerned with when it comes to matters of personal growth, whether that be in the realm of fitness or any other.