I'll be honest, as much as I love other people, I hate birthdays. It's one of those things where if you don't have a great birthday you start comparing yourself and really wondering if you have as many good friends as you think. Then when other people have birthdays (which I love to celebrate) you still have that thought in the back of your mind that your birthday isn't that great. Honestly I could love birthdays a lot more if I just lose the narcissism and stopped comparing myself to everyone else.

The truth is, a lot of us struggle with this. It may not be in the form of being cynical on birthdays, but we have, at one point or another, wanted something someone else has, whether it be money or popularity or a cool job. It's easy to look at others and what they have and forget that we have many blessings that have been given to us. Everyone will always have something you don't. Someone will always have the better job or the cooler friends, but so do you. You just have to look at your life and it appreciate it. The opposite of comparison is thankfulness. When you appreciate everything good in your life, like your friends and your job, you don't have the time or the energy to focus on comparing yourself to others.

Another thing to do is actually build people up anytime you have the urge to compare yourself. When you do this you stop treating other people as objects that you compare yourself to and rather you look at them as wonderful human beings. This method tricks your brain and it makes you look at people with the glass half full perspective.

Don't try and have this super unrealistic ideal version of yourself. Because you will never be able to reach it. Yes, it it is okay to have goals and desire to be a better version of yourself, but sometimes we have these unrealistic goals that we just can't reach. You'll feel worst about yourself when you don't reach them and then just revert back to your old ways of comparing yourself to others.

These points are hopeless if you don't follow this one thing, however. Look to God. At the root of comparison is pride. We think we're better then everyone else and so we try to project that whenever we compare ourselves to others. When we realize that we're pretty ordinary and the God we serve is pretty extraordinary, then it takes the pressure off us.