It is YOUR journey

Question - What is the biggest injustice that you can do in this life, and on whom?

Answer - The biggest injustice that you can do is to yourself. That injustice is comparing your life journey with someone else's journey and worst still, changing your own journey to follow theirs. 

(The second biggest injustice that one can do is as a parent on their children. It is comparing the children with other children and in the process ignoring their unique gifts.)

I am not suggesting that all comparison is wrong. If you are pursuing the same academic path as someone else or learning the same skill as them, then comparison can sometimes generate healthy competition. What I am talking about here is comparing your life journey with theirs. 

But what is a life journey?

A life journey is, simply put, the way you want to lead your life. In other words, it means 'how do you want your life to be?'. 

We all have certain dreams and expectations about how we want our life to unfold. It consists of several thigs like professional life, personal life, hobbies, priorities, how we want out retirement to be, fitness goals, passions, even our day to day life and many other things. From person to person, the order of the priorities changes. This is life journey. Two people in the same profession can have different journeys. Even two life partners can have two different life journeys.

For someone, fitness is the prime goal. For others, acquiring material wealth is the journey. For still others it can be turning their passion into their profession. In some cases, helping their children to succeed in their journey can be a journey. And there are many more.

There can be multiple journeys for a person

A person can be on multiple journeys, both short term and long term. We usually go from journey to journey, for example, fitness goal followed by financial goal followed by relationship goal etc. There can be a short term journey and a long term journey, for example, a young person can have buying a house as a short term journey and retiring at 45 as a long term journey. 

Do you have a life journey? And why is it important?

Ask yourself, 'Do I have a journey planned for myself in life?' 

Do you? Do you have a journey planned for your life or are you drifting around attracted by a big pay package, a promise of a good life or any other thing, only to discover later on that it is not your thing.

Being on a journey is nothing but having a plan for your life. Agreed that things may not always go as per your plan. But, a plan will always give you something to aim for. Having a plan for life involves knowing yourself. It involves analyzing your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). It involves optimizing the use of your resources. That is why you need to be on a journey in life. 

So coming back to the injustice...

Once your life journey is finalized, either short term or long term, do not compare it with someone else's journey. It is your journey and more importantly your timeline. 

Watching someone's fitness videos may tempt you to revamp your routine and diet. Watching someone else learn a foreign language may tempt you to follow suit. A friend talking about their success with a financial investment plan may force you to go for it.

Ask yourself, 'IS THIS GOING TO SUPPORT ME IN MY JOURNEY?' 

Nothing wrong with learning or adopting something new but remember that as a human being, you have limited time and energy. Investing time, energy and money into something that does not support your journey will be a waste. If it supports your journey i.e. helps in fulfilling your goals, go for it.

Another reason why it is not recommended...

Someone may be or may look like they are ahead of you in their journey. This will lead you to doubt your own progress. Someone with a different body type and a professional fitness trainer will achieve a fitness goal faster than someone without professional help. A person with multiple sources of income will get to the financial goal faster than someone with just one source.

We usually do not factor these things and as a result feel that we are behind in our journey. 

Self Benchmarking - The best comparison

If you have to compare, compare yourself with yourself. See how much progress you have made in your journey. See where you are now as compared to where you were, lets say, six months ago. 

This will tell you a lot about how much progress you are making and what improvements you need to make. It is your journey and you should compare it with nothing but your own progress.

In the end...

Remember why you set the goals that you did. In other words, why you set out on the journey that you are on. The reasons are uniquely your own. In the same way, it is your own unique journey. Respect it and stick to it. 

If you keep changing tracks, it will take time to settle into a new journey and time is something that you do not have an unlimited supply of. Doing this thing often will lead to frustration and self doubt. So, no matter how green the proverbial grass looks on the other side, stay with your journey.

After all, it is YOUR journey.