It's a hard knocks life out there. With pressure from countless people pushing us to be the best we can be, we are inevitably forced into stress and competition. While stress is quite possibly the worst thing ever, a little healthy competition never hurt anybody. The motivational "I want to be better than her" saying that comes across our brain every once in a while can really have a positive effect. But we have to draw the line, the line between competition and comparison.

Competition is good. In fact, it's encouraged. Competition with yourself is healthy, it makes us want to be great. And who doesn't want to be great? Now, unfortunately, as we grow up, we aren't given a gold star every time we get an A on a test (which sucks), but nonetheless you satisfied something inside you instead, the inherent need to be better than you were before.

And there's nothing wrong with that. It means you're not complacent, and complacency is dangerous. Where we run into problems is competition with others, because that leads to comparisons, and comparisons are so detrimental to how we see ourselves.The minute we sit there and think "she's smarter than me," "she's prettier than I am" or "she's skinnier than I am," we lose, and I hate losing.

You are good enough as you. You don't need to be the model on the cover of Cosmo (because we damn sure know they don't even look like that). You don't need to look identical to your gorgeous roommate whose makeup you idolize as she walks down the stairs. You don't need to lose 50 pounds because you want to look like Gigi Hadid. Those jobs are already taken.

We have to stop comparing ourselves to everyone else we ever see. We have to acknowledge that even if we go to class in sweats with no make up on, we are still that same gorgeous person that we are when we contour our face to a T.

So just remember, the next time you go to compare yourself to someone, roses and Christmas lights are both beautiful, and they look nothing alike.