#comparing yourself

[kiwi-soda]

dissatisfied

[tears-that-heal]

To my fellow artists........

It's super easy to fall into comparing yourself & your artistic skills to other artists. Since the internet was created and opened public contact to the rest of the world, like social media. We're now comparing ourselves to all the artists in the world. Discouragement and self-doubt in ourselves are evermore in danger of paralysis-ing us from moving forward in our creativity.

It is a battle. Comparison in any form will break down your self-confidence. There'll always be someone "better" than you, and someone not as skilled as you. This is honestly a fact on life. I still catch myself scrolling on instagram seeing other artist's artwork. It can make anyone feel not good enough, but I know I have the choice to not allow myself to put my own self down. My goal is not to strive for Perfection, but Excellence! It is to do my very best in creating own my artwork, and so much more. Perfection is simply a subjective illusion that's unachievable in the long run.

I once lived in a big city in Silicone Valley California, to now residing in a small West Texas rural town and I couldn't be happier. Here I have little to no need to make an artist reputation on social media. I'm being seen as myself and my artistic skills are being highly appreciated. You can saw I've been a rarity that's finally being valued for what's it worth. The point is I found my audience, my niche. Once you're able to find that for yourself as a working artist, than that too will help prevent you from comparing yourself to other artists as well. It'll also allow you to thrive in your artistic craft. The challenging part is to physically step outside and meet people. There might be an artist community in your own area that you didn't know about. Don't rely on the internet thinking it'll give you all the answers you seek. I've totally been there. I'm a true introvert to my core, but I had learn and refine my people skills to successfully live in the world. Yes, it's hard, but it's beyond worth the time and effort. Now a days, people think I'm completely joking when I say I'm an introvert. I guess my people and communication skills have become that good. Lol ;)

[notalisonyet]

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Self-Doubt

There is no single trigger for Kiki’s crisis of confidence. She regrets the way she must dress. She regrets not having more money. She finds the town has rules that don’t make allowances for witches. She sees other people her age being happy and cheerful, while she sits and watches through windows. She may wonder if she left home too soon and should’ve prepared better first. Maybe she also wonders if she’s too old-fashioned to have friends her age, instead of only adults.

She ends up wet and bedraggled face-to-face with a well-to-do birthday girl in her party dress, who treats Kiki like an unimportant laborer—what you can expect as a deliveryperson. Then she gets upset that Tombo is friends with this girl.

It isn’t as simple as Kiki wanting to be like the birthday girl, though, because it seems clear Kiki considers her rude and ungrateful, callous towards a good and thoughtful grandmother. Kiki may want what the richer girl has, but she wouldn’t want to be her. Is it possible to have it both ways, being fashionable and glamorous but at the same time good-hearted and respectful and kind? Does being the second mean she’ll never be the first?

[solitarywalker13]

[angelnumber27]

One of the best things you can do for yourself (especially right now with so many of us being so isolated) that is super simple is to just go through and unfollow or cut off anybody on your social media who isn’t contributing to your growth, healing, confidence or recovery. You are not obligated to follow these stuck up influencers, people with evil ideals or people you can tell have evil ideals but are pretending not to, fake celebrities who are photoshopping their bodies, and these girls who you follow subconsciously to torture yourself because you do not feel adequate enough.

Do yourself this one big favor and just unfollow (and block if you need to) all of the people who make you upset, bring back bad memories, all of the people you find yourself negatively comparing yourself to (“she’s so pretty, I’ll never look like her.” “I wish I had that body. I need to keep following her for motivation to lose weight” “why can’t my face/ body look like that?”) and anybody who posts things that aren’t either inspiring you, making you happy, uplifting you or reminding you to continue healing and growing in the right direction. You get to choose who and what you interact with on social media, as well as who interacts with you. So choose to follow and interact with accounts and people who inspire you, who lift you up and bring you joy and peace, those who teach you how to healthily cope and help you follow your dreams and reach your goals.

It’s not only okay to get rid of toxic influences in your life, it is encouraged! If you need to cut someone off to keep growing, do it. Mental health should always come first but especially during this period of difficulties, your mental well-being comes before following some photoshopped or negative person on social media. Your mental well-being comes before almost everything. It is extremely valuable and you need to realize that and treat it accordingly.

[lucid-luno]

comparing

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about mental health these days, so I want to add something as well.

We’ve all had those moments, “they look better than me”, “they’re better at ___ than me”, “I wish I could be as good as them”, “why am I not like them”... Everyone always tells you not to compare yourself to others, but I haven’t seen many people explain...why? So here’s my take on this.

That person was born likely far away from you and is older/younger. By just being born at a different place and different time they already have a different start to life. They have different skills that they’re born with or gain. They’ll go to a different school and have many friends and people who shape them into a person they’ll soon become. They’ll get a job that will transform them even further and so on.

You can’t compare yourself to others because you have completely different experiences. Even if you’re born in the same place at the same time you will not be the same! You are two different beings! You perceive the world differently. Imagine if you were born just one year earlier or later. Imagine how different you would act, your friend group would change completely and you’d look at life differently.

You can’t compare yourself because you don’t have the same advantages and abilities as them, you don’t have the same mindset as them. And that’s not a bad thing.

[never-close-our-eyes]

comparing yourself to other artists or writers is literally the worst thing you can do, especially when you're first starting out

[b3ckyetc]

If ever you've asked yourself 'how does [X person] always know the right thing to do while I always struggle?', here's your answers: 1: X has been in this situation before. They've learned from previous experience so the 'right' way to handle it comes more quickly to them

2. X -doesn't- know, but they have an innate ability to improvise and figure it out on the spot. That's just something that not everyone can do, in the same way not everyone has green eyes.

3. X -doesn't- know, and -doesn't- have the aforementioned innate ability. They just took a lucky guess and you happened to be there for it

4: X actually isn't doing the right thing at all, but they're charismatic/confident/ignorant enough that they LOOK LIKE and THINK they are

Tying into all of the above, you haven't seen the countless times X has messed up - and believe me, they have. It happens to everyone.

Final thought: you're not the only one who feels this way. MOST people do. You are not useless