How to let go of comparison as a creative entrepreneur

For the longest time, comparing myself to others (comparisonitis) has been one of the most restrictive constraints that has stifled the creative spark inside my soul. Almost every time I look at social media, I would compare my life to others (especially other women) and judge myself for being “less than” them. It’s like putting on a lens where you see others in rosy colors but judging at your own self for a hideous mess that she is. And I know most of creatives/artists/entrepreneurs wear these lenses.

At first glance, you may think to yourself that “perhaps I just need to do more, be more, achieve more.” And you may spend your working around this inner pain. You may think to yourself that perhaps you are just envious of a life that they have. Or perhaps you may think to yourself that you just need to heal that unworthiness (“I am not good enough”) wound.

But I have learned, through realization, that none of that is actually the case. Yes, loving yourself and accepting as you are does help, however, for creatives like myself who are here to unleash your creative gifts/expressions in this life, there is a deeper reason for that tendency to compare yourself this others.

And that reason is our intense inner hunger, a howling from the inner most core of our essence— to create. Specifically, it is a longing to create beyond what we thought are capable of. Truth is, comparing yourself to others actually doesn’t have much to do with other people. It’s a frustration, a pent-up pain we feel within ourselves about our own creative expressions.

Because if we are deeply and madly in love with our own creative expressions, we wouldn’t even bother about how others are living their lives at all

I see that this is the reason why comparisonities provokes us the most whenever we are scrolling on social media. Because whenever we are on there, we are exposed to a barrage of other people’s content/creations at an overwhelming rate. And for creatives, this triggers comparisonitis for two reasons:

-either because what the other person is expressing is similar to what you want to create 

-or because our soul is yearning to create something different (perhaps even better in your own perspective) 

I found out that mine was the latter in most cases. One unforgettable healing moment was something I saw in my meditation of summer 2022– when I was going through the root of why I was feeling so inferior compared to so-called “high-level” coaches I saw on social media. What my meditation showed me was something profound. 

It took me back to fifth-grade when I felt huge comparisonitis around my academic grades. Back then, my parents wanted me to get top 3 positions so badly, however, all I could manage was to get 14th position (in Myanmar, the country I grew up in, academic positions were announced publicly to everyone in the class). I saw my fifth grade self being so sad, hopeless, and disappointed at herself, as she watched the top students gleaming in their achievements from afar. I felt inferior for being a back-bencher. 

And when I asked myself in the meditation “what if you actually allow her to be a back-bencher?” that was when the healing happened. Back when I was in fifth-grade I could not allow her to be the back bencher, for my parents would scold me and not love me, perhaps even drop me out of school. But when I asked that question of what I would do differently, if I knew that everything would be alright, what I saw in the meditation brought me to a soul-freeing relief... 

I saw my fifth-grade self letting go of the comparisonitis with other students. I saw her being care-free, all by herself, unafraid of not fitting in with everyone else, and instead drawing art and creating things out of joy, prolifically and tirelessly till she is satisfied. I saw my inner child being so in her joy for being her own creative muse without needing to meet anyone else’s standards. In other words, she learned to own her differences (her unique gifts). 

From then onward, everytime a fuzz of comparisonitis flew at my face, I realize that it is actually my soul telling me to steer differently from what I see others creating. So now, instead of letting comparisonitis wallow me, I now reframe it as a form of excitement that my soul is desiring to express something different/new, perhaps in a creative realm that others haven’t treaded on yet.

What I have realized is that, you can choose to see comparisonitis as actually a nudge from your soul to follow your creative desires that yet to be unleashed, instead of sinking into self-doubt. You can use comparisonitis as actually an “activation” that points you toward how your unique soul expression looks like. Perhaps it is because what the other person is aligned to how your soul wants to express OR it feels misaligned to what your soul actually wants to express. The choice is yours on how you see it as. 

Once you’ve chosen to see that comparisonitis is not an indication of your inferiority, but rather a gentle breeze redirecting you to your soul, the miracles you will encounter are galore. First, you will discover your unique creative gifts, one after the other, like gemstones that lead to a divine treasure chest. Then you will forget that your creative journey is not even about you vs others, but rather it is a freedom exploration journey that leads to your True Self... as you feel like a fairy leaving her unique soul-glitters under a moonlit forest.