The Comparison Game

In honor of National School Counseling Week 2026, 

I asked AI to create this caricature of me in my element. 

If only my hair really had that much volume.

Wait, did I just compare myself to a computer drawing?

I've been thinking a lot about comparisons lately.

This quote, of course, resonates so much because

it's so easy to let comparisons steal our joy.

Even animals struggle with this! Check out this study from years ago, in which they gave this monkey a task (hand them a rock) and in turn it was given a cucumber. The monkey seemed fine with the cuke until it saw that its friend, for the exact same task, was rewarded with a grape.

Isn't that crazy?

Another short that bears out this maxim is My Shoes.

What kind of a discussion might this spark with your learners?

Seems from these cases that President Roosevelt was right,

and that comparing ourselves to others is a real risk.

I might add that allowing those comparisons to 

 become envy or jealousy doesn't become us at all.

So I turn again to Byron Katie's idea of Loving What Is, and it helps me when I start to play the comparison game, with others or with myself. So when John looks at an old Passport photo and says,Your face was so thin!, instead of feeling envious about how I looked 30 years ago, I try the turnaround thought: I'm thankful for the wisdom in these wrinkles.

And I'm thankful to still have hair, since my mom,

her sister, and my sister are all challenged with alopecia.

So next time we're tempted to compare,

let's replace it with a gratitude for

what we do have; deal?