When I was first starting out, I caught a common illness that strikes many entrepreneurs: comparisonitis. This disease halts creativity and leaves you immobilized. Have no fear, I have the cure for you today!
In today’s Build Your Business Challenge, Actionable Advice in 60 Seconds or Less, I’m going to share with you how I caught this awful illness and the simple solution that cured me instantly. Even better, I’ve stayed comparisonitis-free for the most part since then.
Check out the video, and learn how to administer this simple and effective cure!
Are you accepting this week’s action challenge?
First, tweet about it!
Then, declare it in the comments below and take action! Report back and let me know how the cure worked for you.
If you have tips on this week’s challenge, please share them in the comments as well.
You must have read my mind — I’ve been doing this all week. Your email of course stays!!
Didn’t you know that I have a secret window into all of your brains? 🙂 Just kidding… Thanks for keeping mine!!
Done!
Yes!!
Know what, I have done it around 2 months ago ! I did unsubscribe from all the newsletters that did not bring anything positive because I realize they were driving me literally insane with all sort of advices. The only one left over (and it is totally true) is yours.
Anyway I am at a deep point, I really do not know how to continue, it is as if with so much comparison I got more insecure about myself. There is so much advice around there, who is going to need mine? sort of idea…
It totally is crazy-making to get so much advice and not have it be anything you can implement immediately. Thank you for your trust in me and for sticking around. That means the world!
Stay clear of things that leave you feeling insecure or unsure and focus on what you need right now. That’s going to keep you headed where you need to go.
Thank you Jenny ! I appreciate very much your advice.
Worse disease ever, you are so right. Why do we do this to ourselves? Great advice to clean out your inbox with all the unnecessary emails. It’s a win-win; saves us time and comparative heartache. Jenny, do you still find yourself over-comparing now? If so how do you combat it?
I hadn’t thought about it that way — you’re right that unsubscribing is a win-win!
I do occasionally compare myself to others but I have a lot in place to make sure I don’t go there. I don’t spend a lot of time on social media, especially on FB; I don’t subscribe to anything I don’t need; I stay focused on what I want and need; and I get coached and coach myself a lot 🙂
Unless you’re Byron Katie or Eckhart Tolle, this is something that will afflict us always and forever. But how much power it has over our lives is totally in our control.
Wow – I think I’ve had a case of comparisonitis for a long time but never knew what to call it other than envy or admiration. Funny how the envy and admiration can turn and lead to self doubt. I’ve started to slowly do this, and I think your words have inspired me to amp this up a bit. Thanks for your message!.
What a great insight, Stacey. Thanks for sharing. I hadn’t thought about it that way but totally can see how envy or admiration could turn into self-doubt. Great catch on your part because now you can do something about it! 🙂
Jenny I’ve got to the point where I just don’t have time to read, much less implement all the advice I sign up for. That’s one reason I love your blog so much is because it is short and to the point, but really helps remind me of what’s important. I’ve been unsubscribing to emails that sit in my box more than a week because I just don’t have time to read them. But you’re right, even though I’m interested in the emails, they aren’t something that is supporting me in my journey right now. Continuing to make space in my day for things I don’t need right now is a total time drain, not to mention energy. Thank you for not only being so mindful but sharing these things as well. It really is the little things that help us take big steps. 🙂
You’ve got it perfectly, Teri! Way to go to already have this action step underway!
Love this tip Jenny – though I have a whole six week course on kicking comparisonitis because unsubscribing from newsletters is just the tip of the iceberg in getting rid of this disease!
There are definitely many factors to kicking comparisonitis, that’s totally true! Getting the crap out of our faces is a good first step. Getting coached and learning self-coaching is critical. And focusing on what we each want individually and why and why we can have it is always a good one. Bet your course is great!
So very true. And also it can be quite intimidating starting out and receiving a mega ton of advice emails from those who are established who seem to have all their ducks in a row! I’ve recently started unsubscribing leaving just a handful of positive and helpful people in my inbox.
I totally know what you mean. I felt intimidated when I was starting also, getting newsletters on all of the things I thought I needed to know RIGHT NOW. Talk about stressful and feeling inadequate! Focus on what you really need right now (not the urgency someone else tries to create for you), and you’ll be put right back on track 🙂
Haha! This is hilarious! I know this disease, i wrote about it too. Comparing is harmful no matter if we fall short or do better in the comparison. Ok, off to unsubscribing, unfortunately that means giving up few bschoolers newsletters. Yours is staying for sure, as well as Danielle laporte, cheryl Richardson ( proof that you can send ugly newsletters and they will be thrilled to get it for over two years non stop), and lissa rankin.
Yes, it does mean we sometimes need to unsubscribe from others but you’ve got to take care of you to run your business. I’m honored to be on your list. Thank you!
Thanks, Jenny!
It isn’t so much that the newsletters or blogs are negative or triggering, it is that I read their information versus work on my own…total distraction from my own work.
Thank you, for the reminder, to keep my head down and my side of the street clean and clear.
Paula
Yes!! Not only do some newsletters make us feel like crap, they are distractions. Smart catch, Paula!
This is going to feel so good! I was on an unsubscribe roll but then I felt weird guilt when I came across doing so from peers’ lists. Inspired now to do it now anyway! (sorry ladies) 😉
Totally hear you, Kathy. I felt guilty with some of my unsubscribes, too, but it’s okay. You can still love and support them other ways 🙂
As a doc, I love that you gave this word the “-itis” it deserves! I catch the “comparisonitis” bug way more than I’d like to admit…it is coupled with my other chronic disease, “perfectionist pants”. My treatment protocol is my support team that gives me a good dose of encouragement, love, and good kick in the pants when I need it ~ couldn’t do it without them. My prescription is this affirmation, “I am a beautiful, unique woman, with amazing gifts and talents. The world needs me”.
Thanks Jenny! 🙂
Love your prescription, Deborah! I’m sure others will find it useful for their case of -itis!!
I took on this task on Sunday evening and I feel so much lighter. One of the things about oversubscribing is we receive sooo much in our inbox and then feel we have to read it because if we don’t, we may miss a crucial piece of wisdom. My promotions inbox became a heavy burden. As you can tell by my comment today I’ve remained subscribed to your wisdom Jenny 😉
I definitely had FOMO (fear of missing out) before I started massively unsubscribing. I have a new mantra I use: “Everything I need will come to me exactly when I need it.” It’s way better than thinking that NOW is the only time to get relevant information for the length of my business’s existence! 🙂 Thanks for sticking around, Sandra. I am honored!
I so needed to find and read this just now, thank you. I have a bad case of comparisonitis and a touch of imposter syndrome to boot. I’m just starting out and feel I have no voice so I’m desperately signing up to lists and reading everything I can devour. All it’s doing is making me feel overwhelmed and inexperienced and each time I sit down to write, the voices and words of everyone and everything I have read start dancing around my mind. Thank you for the nudge to un subscribe. Its strange somehow how we feel better when someone else tells us its ok to be ourselves even though we were feeling icky by being anything other.
“don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle” – Jon Acuff – says it all really 🙂
You absolutely have permission to unsubscribe!! Yes – stick to being you and you will always be pointed in the right direction!