Comparisons
– Tim Hiller
“Don’t compare your beginnings to someone else’s middle.”
Social media is the second largest promotional channel today.
If you aren’t promoting your product/service/yourself on social media then you are missing out on a large audience.
I have this habit of trying out every newest social media channel (I am trying out Threads as well! Sigh!)
And to be frank, when I started off I didn’t have any strategy or, plan on how I was going to use it to promote my blog posts or, for that matter anything.
I just posted good quality content with the hope that I will grow a huge audience and become a social media influencer. And that was how I will drive traffic to my podcasts, blogs, and newsletters.
At least that was what the plan (one that wasn’t there) was.
So, I started following people in my niche just as every social media expert/GURU suggests.
Days passed.
My account was crawling.
Every day I would refresh to find that while I gained 1 follower, I lost 2 followers. Consequently, the net gained followers was -1.
And when I went and checked the accounts that I was following, they had grown by 50, 100, and even 500.
There started the comparisons.
I will look at their content and tell myself, “That is crappy content. They don’t follow a thing that the experts are telling us to do and yet they are growing in hundreds. This is crazy!”
The next few hours were stressful and full of demotivating thoughts. I would question my skills and abilities.
Every day that passed doing this, pushed me away from what I was doing.
I was falling deeper and deeper into that demotivation gorge.
It was one such day that I saw this quote, “Eliminate anything that distracts you!”
I spent the next few minutes doing that – eliminating the distractions.
I unfollowed every single account that I was comparing myself with and kept only the big accounts.
After I had done that, I felt like I had shed a lot of weight.
As if I had won a war!
The next few months were quiet.
I was able to focus on my work and on what I wanted to really do on Social media.
I only occasionally went back to check my social media insights, just so that I learn more about what kind of content to create.
Now, the question you might ask is – “Did you grow your following”?
The answer is “No. I didn’t.”
But I was able to focus on more important things.
I was able to see some of the things that I really needed to work on to improve myself.
I was able to improve my productivity by saving the time that I was otherwise spending on brooding over somebody else’s growth!
And I had stopped comparing myself with others whose journey I had little privy to.
The one thing that we are taught right from our childhood is “comparison“.
And that’s what we blindly keep doing all our life.
But the truth is that nobody has grown in life merely by comparing themselves with others.
They have only grown if they have been able to look into the mirror and ask themselves, “What do I need to change in order to grow”.
That’s the comparison that we need to learn to do.
Oscar Wilde once said, “Be Yourself. Everyone else is already taken”.
So be Yourself!
Eliminate anything that distracts you. It doesn’t matter how influential it is or, how big it is.
If it distracts you and your growth, then you don’t need it in your life!
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Found on the internet
Here’s what I found on the internet this week.
Since we are talking about comparisons and eliminating distractions, I thought you would love this post. I found this on LinkedIn and really loved the anecdote!
I am somehow not liking the new name for Twitter. X just doesn’t resonate with the platform. Or, maybe it is just that thing about change.
Anyways, if you have ever wondered why your writing isn’t powerful, then this tip is for you!
What am I reading?
I am not sure if this section has helped anyone yet.
But it has definitely helped me a lot!
I had dropped my reading speed significantly over the last 6 months or, so. But thanks to this section, I am back on track.
Anyway, I have started reading “Essentialism“, the last week.
And I haven’t yet decided on which book to pick up next.
So the book recommendation for this week stays the same!
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinion about this newsletter.
