Thought 99: No Comparisons, No Complexes

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You also have strengths and weaknesses. All of us have to realize this fact and appreciate that, no one - absolutely no one - has only strengths and no weaknesses at all; and similarly, no one has only weaknesses and no strengths at all. Some will have more strengths than weaknesses and others will have more weaknesses than strengths. These strengths as well as weaknesses need not be in the same areas for all persons; in fact, they are never. God has not created this world on the basis of equality. No two individuals, seldom have identical strengths and weaknesses. The finger prints of individuals is a good example of this truth.

Frequently, we get into complexes without our knowledge. Take a student - call him student "A". He may be good at sports but his grades in maths are poor. Because of his interest in sports, he is always in good health and physical fitness. He feels good and he has a good temperament. There is another student - call him student "B" - in the same class. "B" has always been getting good grades in maths, but he does not care for games and sports. His physical health is nothing to write home about. He has a bad temperament too; he is irritable and snaps at you at the least provocation.

If "A" were to compare with "B" in maths skills, he is buying himself a one way ticket to inferiority complex. He is forgetting that he has strengths too - in areas wherein "B" is weak. If he has to compare at all, he should do so in all areas, in fairness to himself, so that the balance and perspective are never lost. Is it not a familiar scenario? Have you not done this? Several good students suffer agony and become miserable, not because they do not have any talent for studies, but because, they think that they do not have the talent, on account of such ill-conceived comparisons. When you compare your weakness with someone else's strength, you are bound to feel inferior. If this is allowed to become a habit, you get an inferiority complex.

Comparisons are indeed odious. If you think that you are no good and you are born to lose; you can never win. When you feel inferior you do not enjoy meeting with people. All the fun and excitement of life is taken away from you. Life becomes a series of miserable days in quick succession. This is all, of course, your own doing - and this is purely a self-inflicted misery.

The next thought is about “People like to compare to show off”