Lessons From…. Everyone Else – Movember Edition

With Movember on my mind and the beginnings of a Mo on my face (some members of my team, and members of my household for that matter, will not be happy with this), I thought it might be a great opportunity to share about health.

Both the mental and physical aspects of health struggles seem to be continually coming to the fore. It is no wonder. We have been through a bit over the past few years and have learnt to just accept a baseline of increased stress. Not a great way to live.

Today I am sharing about one of those motorways to misery – comparison – the thief of joy.

To create this list, I started by jotting down a few recurring themes, and added to it any time I noticed myself having a grizzle or gripe or negative thoughts. These often appear in the form of an “I wish” statement.

I realised once I had written this that there are certain similarities in form with Leonard Cohen’s song Everybody Knows, which you can listen to here if you like.

You will notice hyperbole, contradiction, some pain, some humor. I think that you will relate to some of the ideas, and others will be less meaningful to you. You will, of course, have your own grizzles, gripes and complaints that you carry with you. Feel free to add them to the list in the comments below.

If you would like to make a donation to Movember you can support my fundraising effort here. I’ll run 100kms this month and try and raise some money.

I hope the words below get you thinking – stop being too hard on yourself, and remember that your path in life is exactly that. It is YOUR path.

Lessons from Everyone Else

Everyone Else is better than me
Everyone Else is better off than me
Everyone Else is fitter than me
Everyone Else is more committed than me

Everyone Else is luckier than me
Everyone Else was born into a better situation than me
Everyone Else is faster than me
Everyone Else started earlier than me

Everyone Else is wealthier than me
Everyone Else plans better than me
Everyone Else has their shit together
Everyone Else is more spontaneous than me

Everyone Else has children that are better behaved
Everyone Else is better at their hobbies than me
Everyone Else has interests that are much more interesting than mine
Everyone Else always has all of the right answers

Everyone Else is much smarter than me
Everyone Else makes better decisions than me
Everyone Else has a more supportive partner than me
Everyone Else is stronger than me

Everyone Else is a better communicator than me
Everyone Else has more hair than me, where I would want more hair
Everyone Else is less reactive than me
Everyone Else has less hair than me, where I would want less hair

Everyone Else is tidier than me
Everyone Else has a better car than me
Everyone Else is a better child than me
Everyone Else is a better sibling than me

Everyone Else is more organized than me
Everyone Else solves problems better than I do
Everyone Else gets less stressed than me
Everyone Else started later than me

Everyone Else is much taller than me
Everyone Else has more free time than me
Everyone Else has less expenses than me
Everyone Else is more spiritual than me

Everyone Else works harder than me
Everyone Else works out harder than me
Everyone Else has more free time than me
Everyone Else is happier than me

Everyone Else is better than me.