I find myself often comparing my progress and achievements to others and tend to underestimate my potential. It’s hard to stop when you get notifications on LinkedIn about people getting promoted or adding any new internship opportunity. I am extremely happy and supportive for my peers that achieve more opportunities, but at the same time I also get a tad jealous and wonder if I’m doing enough to stand out.
One of the key things to remind yourself is to be happy with where you are at and what you have accomplished. I know that you have probably heard this before, but it’s comforting to take a moment to reflect back to the times where you have achieved something. We tend to get caught up in the moment instead of taking a moment to be more optimistic about what you have accomplished. One piece of advice that I’ve learned from someone is to just take the experiences that you’ve gained and add the skills or lessons that you got out of it. I think that gaining as many experiences will benefit you to stand out.
One of the main ways that helps me to stop comparing myself is taking a step back to reflect on the skills that I have and what future internship or job that could be applied to in order to get to the position that I hope to get in the future. I also find that comparing myself to other peoples’ success motivates me to work harder to get towards their level. The main thing that I think that people should take away is to just appreciate the process and be happy and grateful towards the opportunities and experiences that you have. Two main takeaways that I’ve learned from former mentors is to own your own learning path and that you create your own opportunities.