Comparing Yourself To Others

For the most part, many climbers are able to keep competition internal.  This is good,and these climbers are probably the happiest climbers out there.

Comparing yourself to others is a losing battle as there will always be people better than you. And if you only compare yourself to others “worse” than you, than you may have some confidence (or other) issues.

Obviously, some are able to have healthy competitiveness…but competitiveness is different from comparing worth.

It is possible to gain inspiration from better climbers.   Also, while climbing has a number system that makes it a bit too easy to make comparisons, life does not.  When you make a comparison to someone else in life, you are temporarily focusing in on a single variable or moment and ignoring everything else.  You are setting yourself up for failure.  

Even in climbing, the variables are still there:style of climbing, height, body type, length of route, experience.  For example, it is hard to be both an insane boulderer and an insanely good sport climber.  Add in alpine climbing, and you’ll probably just freeze from lack of body fat.  

There are always people who are better than you.   There are always people who are worse than you.   Compare wisely.

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