WHY COMPARISON HOLDS YOU BACK
One quiet morning, a young craftsman walked into the home of an old philosopher. His shoulders were tight, his thoughts heavier than the tools he carried each day.
“I always feel behind,” he confessed. “Everyone around me seems more skilled, more successful, further ahead. No matter how hard I work, it never feels like enough.”
The philosopher listened without interrupting. He simply nodded and led the young man into a small workshop at the back of his house. Sunlight streamed through a narrow window. Wooden benches lined the walls. And in the corner stood a simple wooden ladder.
“Climb,” the philosopher said gently.
Though confused, the craftsman obeyed. He climbed halfway up the ladder.
“Now look around you,” the philosopher instructed.
From that height, the room looked different. He could see the grain of the wooden beams, the neat arrangement of tools, and dust floating like tiny sparks in the sunlight.
“What do you see?” asked the philosopher.
“My surroundings,” the young man replied. “Everything looks clearer from here.”
The philosopher nodded. “Good. Now compare your height to the ladder.”
The craftsman frowned. “Compare myself… to the ladder? That doesn’t make sense.”
A soft smile appeared on the philosopher’s face.
“Exactly,” he said. “A ladder exists to help you climb, not to compete with you. Its purpose is to support your progress — not to define your value.”
The young man fell silent.
“Yet,” the philosopher continued, “people turn life into a ladder of comparison. They keep looking sideways — measuring themselves against others. But growth is not about standing higher than someone else. It’s about moving upward from where you began.”
The words settled slowly, like calm water after a storm.
“So the real question isn’t, ‘Am I ahead of them?’” the craftsman asked.
The philosopher shook his head.
“It’s, ‘What is my next step?’”
The young man carefully climbed down the ladder. The workshop looked the same. The world outside hadn’t changed. But something inside him had.
For the first time in months, he felt lighter.
He realised that progress wasn’t a race against others. It was a quiet journey upward — one step at a time. 🪜
From that day on, whenever comparison tried to steal his peace, he asked himself one simple question:
What is my next step?
And with each step he took, steady and focused, he discovered something surprising —
When you stop comparing yourself to others, growth becomes natural, meaningful, and deeply your own.
Lesson:
Measure your progress against who you were yesterday — not against who someone else is today. Focus on your next step, and let improvement unfold naturally.
