Comparison is the Thief of Joy? Nahhhh. I don't think so.
My thoughts and experience on comparison
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” they said. I don’t totally agree on this. Without doubt, comparing with others is the thief of joy. But comparing with yourself is another story. Whenever I experience self-doubt in my head (sadly, this happens quite often), I go through the following steps:
Stop whatever you are doing
Take a deep breathe
Step back, literally. One step away from your desk, canvas, computer or whatever you are doing.
Dig out a piece of old work (I find it handy to stick my old work on the wall, the uglier the better.)
Open your eyes and ask yourself, “ Haven’t you notice how much you have improved?”
Often, we feel so connected to our work and all we see are flaws. This stroke here is too tight. The colour of the background is off. The composition is wrong. It is not perfect. Yes, of course. No one is perfect. Nothing is perfect. What does perfect even mean? Perfect to you might not be perfect to me. It is totally pointless to compare yourself with others because there are 8,019,876,189 human beings on this planet and I guarantee there must be somebody out-there better than you, more talented than you.
Whenever you start playing the comparison game or saying nasty things to yourself, try this instead— compare yourself with the person you were this time last year (or even 3 years ago). Take a look at the paintings you created last year, the songs you wrote 2 years ago, the person you were 5 years ago. You will realise how far you have come, how much you have improved and grown. This is the ONLY comparison game anyone should play. It will be an awesome tool to remind yourself - Go with your own pace and you are exactly where you suppose to be. This comparison will turn out to be the best motivation you can ever get.
IMPROVEMENT. Sounds like a big, scary thing. Nope. Improvement does not need to be huge. Try a new colour that you are not familiar with. Use a different brush. Include a new medium in your work. Send an email to an art director. Make a new illustrator friend online. Looking at people in the eyes while talking to them( That’s HUGE for an introvert) . All of these count.
The egg benny below is the first illustration I made back in 2019 ( I cannot believe I can find all these photos back! Thanks to iCloud. ) and the other two were created in similar period. I started with the simplest tools - colour pencils and printing paper.
When I first started, all I drew were my recovery journey, food I ate, my thoughts because I just wanted to share my experience with people who might find it useful. I wished to help those who were suffering from eating disorder, like me, knowing that they were not alone. Few months in, I drew a lot more quirky food characters and added funny / affirmative quote to make things more interesting. I learnt how to draw using my iPad. It is so rewarding to see my improvement in less than a year.
Comparison with yourself is the key to improve. (Au, 2024)
Do you have any thoughts on comparison? Share with me if you find this useful or you have other tips to deal with your inner critic :)
Happy comparing my friend!
So glad that you find it helpful💛 keep going girl!
Love this and it's super true! We forget how far we've come! It's so encouraging to see your old drawings and be reminded we all start from somewhere - its not about how we start, it's about where we end up and what we do to get there. And importantly whether we are willing to keep going or stop.. and i say hell yeah - lets keep going, thanks for sharing your perspective 💛🫶