Just Do You

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Oh my gosh I am doing it AGAIN!! Why can’t I stop comparing myself constantly?

Browsing online at other bloggers, websites, and social media accounts.  Watching this reality show, listening to that podcaster. Somehow trying to find my way in everybody else’s stuff.

Checking out the new pool my neighbor just got and wondering where they work, how much money do they make to get all the stuff they do.

Maybe I should do that. Maybe I should do this. It’s definitely working for that person so I should just follow what works for them and I will have the same success.

Okay wait why isn’t this working for me? How come when I say it or do it, I don’t get the same outcome as the person that just totally succeeded at it?

I have spent my entire life thinking like this, and if I am being honest, I still do. But I am able to catch myself a lot more when it happens now.

This is distraction! That’s all it is. Getting distracted by every shiny object that someone else is holding. keeps you from doing your thing.

God is not whispering the same ideas in EVERYONE’S ears!

In fact, if I was really being truthful, the cliched expression “stay true to YOURSELF” rings in my ears a lot!

Why is this so hard? 

I told myself at the beginning of the year to just keep blinders on.  I’m not exactly sure why I adopted this particular saying; I just knew if I could somehow quit looking at everybody else’s life and what they were doing that I might find a way to do what I need to do. 

I need to stay focused on the straight path between me and God and nothing else, when it comes to using my gifts.

Life is so much easier this way.

It makes you feel so much better when you are not constantly comparing yourself and your life. And you can hear what YOU are supposed to be doing, not whatever is trending or working for someone else.

I can’t keep ignoring that this message keeps coming up for me over and over again in a multitude of ways. No matter where I am, I keep hearing a version of this.

Amy Weatherly has talked about it.

My pastor has preached on it.

There have been numerous articles I have come across talking about the importance of not comparing. Scrolling through Instagram and seeing someone else’s post about comparison, this has to be more than a coincidence.

Hebrews 12:2 – Keep our eyes on Jesus!

Keep your eyes on your own paper.

Stay in your lane.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Stop comparing the grass on the other side of the fence.

Even my devotional read: “You can’t force anything to happen and work out if God is not in it, but if it is God’s time you can’t stop it!” So that means no matter how hard I try to do things like everybody else it probably won’t work for me.

Okay, I understand…. I get it…. I really do. It is so much easier said than done though. There is a fine line between looking and searching for other outlets to learn how to do something, and thinking that my voice, or website or house or whatever it is should look like the person I am trying to learn from.

You know how much energy I could have saved if I would do what I am supposed to do, instead of forcefully trying to do what I think I should because it is what everyone else is doing?  Thinking I control the outcome.

Learning to embrace that I am different that we all are. I personally cannot remember a time when I wasn’t struggling in life. And I can really get caught up in the fact there are lots of people that don’t. All their life situations flow seamlessly into whatever they want.  They strive for something, or sometimes they don’t but they just get it and it works out.

But my life was never meant to be like that. Every single one of us has a different path laid out for us.

The way I look at it is, if you keep getting the same message across multiple sources it is more than just a coincidence. This is a message for you to be obedient to your own unique calling.