I need to be honest with you about something I’ve been wrestling with.
I watched someone else launch (an amazing) product this week. She saw a gap in the market, her audience practically begged her for it, she created it, put it out into the world (quite quickly I might add), and it took off. Her audience wanted exactly what she made, and she gave it to them well.
And I felt everything. Envy first, if I’m being real. Then admiration. Then, embarrassingly, a little bit of frustration – not at her, at myself – because somewhere underneath the excitement was this quiet, ugly voice asking, who do you think you are to launch something like this? Something THAT successful? Like her success was proof of some ceiling I didn’t know I had. Like because she did it, I couldn’t. Um, excuse me (negative) inner dialogue…get on outta here!
That’s the trap. That’s Satan himself showing up in my business (literally) and spoiling it all.
Comparison is everywhere.
We do this everywhere, not just online. We compare homes. We compare finances, quietly, in the privacy of our own anxious math. We compare our families to someone else’s highlight reel of a family. We compare our work, our output, our launches, our digital products – as if there’s one finish line and someone else is always further along it. And here’s the wildest part – I love my life. I have nothing to even be sad about. My marriage, my home, my family…I am so proud of all that I call mine.
Yet here comes social media…it hands us a front-row seat to all of it, all day, every day. It’s a double-edged sword. It can show you what’s possible. It can also convince you that you’re behind in a race you never even agreed to run.
Done Is Better Than Perfect
Here’s the thing about the launch I watched unfold in real time – she didn’t wait for perfect. She had an audience asking for something, and she gave it to them, imperfections and all. Done is better than perfect when people are standing there, hands out, ready for what you have to offer.
I think that’s actually the real lesson buried under all my comparison spiraling. It was never really about her. It was about the fact that I’ve been sitting on something, waiting for it to be flawless before I let anyone see it. Also sort of dreading the HOW of it all. It feels daunting, ya know?!
Someone Else’s Success Is Not a Ceiling
I want to say this clearly, mostly for myself, but also for you if you’re reading this mid-scroll, feeling that same tight chest:
Someone else’s success is never evidence of what you’re not capable of.
It’s evidence of what’s possible. That’s it. That’s all it ever is.
Her win doesn’t shrink the space available for mine. There’s no scoreboard where her point scored means I lost one. The gap she saw and filled doesn’t mean every gap is filled. It means gaps get filled when someone stops waiting and starts building.
Let her success teach you instead of taunt you. Let it show you the shape of what’s possible instead of the shape of what you’re missing. That shift – from she did it so I can’t to she did it so I can see what is possible – is everything.
The Fear Is the Real Obstacle
Comparison isn’t actually the villain here. Fear is. Comparison is just the mirror fear likes to use. It whispers that showing up half-formed, still figuring it out, still building, is dangerous – that you need to have it all together before you’re allowed to take up space.
But fear dressed up as comparison is still just fear. And fear is the thing that keeps people from ever showing up at all.
So Here’s Where I’ve Landed
I’m not going to pretend the envy didn’t happen. It did. I felt it, I sat with it, and I’m not going to shame myself for being human about it. In fact, I will boldly share it so that some of us (maybe you?) feel less alone.
But I’m not going to live there.
The feeling I’m choosing to hold onto – the one I’m clinging to on purpose – is inspired. Encouraged. Motivated as hell.
And now? Now I have the fire to go do the same thing, in my own way, on my own timeline, for my own people.
If you’ve felt this too – that rollercoaster of admiration and ache watching someone else’s win – I hope you’ll let it move you the same way. Not into hiding. Into building.
Done is better than perfect. Their success is not your hindrance. It’s your invitation.
So take the step and bring those dreams you’ve been dreamin’ to life! I’m right there with you, friend.
