Check out all those TV adverts! If you buy such and such products, you will become richer/more loved/greatly admired/whiter/taller… etc etc. They’re magic pills that’d make you a mythical movie star.

In other words, you’d be someone other than yourself.

I used to be guilty of this. I’d rail about not having enough to buy stuff that would keep me up with the Jones’ Then on the macrolevel, I’d gripe about my nation which woefully fails to offer the same social services and opportunities as- say- Sweden.

Then it dawned upon me. Comparison shopping did nothing for my self esteen. It made me feel lower. Smaller. More insignificant than the kneecap of an ant with arthritis.

Imagine if everyone thought this way. What would happen if we validate our worth on our relative status to others? That’d lead to a lot of misery, won’t it. There’d be chaos. And there sure would be a lot of people jumping off roofs. Oh well. At the least, we’d give jobs to coroners.

Next time I feel like comparison shopping, I say one thing to myself: “I am Good Enough”. And instantly I enjoy a rush of power. It’s enough burning motivation to rally on.