Comparing yourself to others isn’t particularly useful in getting where you want to go in life. Even those who reach the very top of society didn’t get there by comparing themselves to others. Instead, it was what they did and probably a lot of luck too. No amount of comparison to our heros will get us closer to where they are or were.
We all fall into thought patterns that’re unhelpful from time to time. You can catch yourself and point out that it’s not something you want to think about right now as it doesn’t help the situation. You may also want to write your feelings down.
There’ll always be people who are smarter, better looking, younger, fitter, more talented, or richer than you. It’s an unfortunate fact of life. The good news is that for the realms of our everyday existence, other people’s successes don’t diminish yours in any way.
A thought experiment that has always stuck with me was to imagine I had a magic wand that could make anyone brilliant at anything (but I couldn’t use it on myself). In that scenario most people (and I) would use it on their loved ones and their peers because really we want everyone to be successful and we know that their brilliance really is a thing to celebrate.
The last thing to consider is, ‘is this a situation caused by a faulty learning method?’ It’s totally possible that you learn best in a particular format and aren’t getting what you need, but your friends learn best in a different way and so are a better match for the material you’re both studying. This is a common experience, particularly as students are forced down a particular learning path.
This is quite a fixable thing even if it does take some time to figure out how to ‘work’ the learning materials. If it’s possible that it is a study technique issue… would it be worth paying your friends a compliment and saying that you admire how quickly they learn and ask what their approach is or even if you could study together?
That’s my opinion anyway and you might think totally differently of course!
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