Everything is Relative

I wanted to put this out there because it’s a truth we lose sight of: Everything is relative.

You might see someone else who has or is doing what you dream to do. Then someone else might be looking at you for the same reasons. No matter where you’re at there’s going to be something better and there’s going to be something worse. There’s going to be different, and there's going to be unrelated. There's going to be things that are unfathomable and unacceptable. And all of that is powerful because it helps you gain awareness on exactly where you’re at and what you need to do next.

Some people would argue that you need to have blinders on and be so focused that you don’t see any of this, but I think understanding your relativity to others is important. The first side of this is that you need to see other people and their success to believe that you can have it too. This accounts for the time and work they put in to achieve it, serving as a nice blueprint for you to use as well. It’s not, however, about being critical of yourself. It’s meant to gain an understanding of where you’re at and what you need to do to get there for yourself.

Then the second side of this is that there are people who don’t have it as well as you do. That’s the gratitude piece, and appreciating aspects of your life in relation to how other people are living.

Notice that I didn’t say compare. Comparison is a dangerous game because it provides relativity without context, trying to position things as better or worse than each other. Relativity in itself is an acknowledgment of how things are presently, as well as the history that lead to it and its implications for the future. Also notice that I didn’t say the good side and the bad side, or the positive side and the negative side. There is no objective “better”. All of this exists on a spectrum where everyone accepts their own tradeoffs for their purposes, interests, and responsibilities.

And that’s what relativity is about: Acquiring more data points to understand where you are on the spectrum.