I recently wrote an article on comparing yourself to others and ways that you can stop (Comparing Yourself To Others Needs To Go Out Of Style) where I listed one of the solutions to the unhealthy comparison as "Put Up or Shut Up". I said:

"Put up or shut up: Harsh, yes. But this will turn what can be unhealthy comparison into a go-getter attitude. Instead of sitting around resenting how much better everyone is at something than you are, get up and work towards who you want to be like. There's absolutely nothing that says that you can't use one of your peers, friends, family members or even arch-enemies as inspiration and motivation to be better yourself."

I once saw a diagram detailing how to overcome anxiety-- it had only one question: Can you control the situation? Yes? Then fix it and stop worrying. No? Then stop worrying. There was only one solution to stress and worry, whether you could control the situation or not, the solution remained the same, to stop worrying.

As harsh and insensitive as it may seem, I'm not the type of person who enjoys hopping on social media and seeing the people I follow complaining about EV-ER-Y-THING. Work, school, the major they chose, the times of their classes, how much studying they have yet to do, etc. To me, it's annoying because all of these things, they can control. So why don't they?

Admittedly, choosing a hard major or having a difficult schedule and work life can leave you feeling more like a victim than someone who's supposed to be taking charge of their life. It can at times feel like life is happening to you instead of you making your life happen. It leaves you with a feeling of inadequacy and like your best isn't good enough. That's where the Put Up or Shut Up Mentality comes in.

The best way to overcome feelings of inadequacy is by doing your absolute best-- no settling. None of that "Well my best isn't good enough so I won't bother trying"-- that's declaring yourself the loser before you've even entered the ring. It's a change in mentality. You have to be okay knowing that you've given all you could. Doing your absolute best needs to be a rush-- one of the best feelings you can feel next to actually achieving what you set out to do.

So the worst possible outcome is not someone being better than you, it's you not giving your all to be better than your competition. The worst possible outcome is not you failing the test, it's you not devoting all the time that you could've to ensure that you passed.

If you're not about it, then maybe just stay quiet and stop stressing out your friends and followers. No one wants to hear a laundry list of problems from a person who is not actively trying to solve said problems.

If you woke up in the morning and decided that you would put up or shut up, you wouldn't have enough time to be comparing yourself to anybody else because you'd be too busy trying to get yourself together.

The grass is greener where you water it.