Welcome to Shop Talk! While we love providing you with jam-packed, actionable posts, we also wanted to share quick, thought-provoking snippets here and there — from our brains to yours.
The comparison trap is more than real as a solopreneur.
We spend a lot of time in our own heads, after all, and when that’s no longer enough, we start to look around.
We start to see other people’s “success” -- and at first, it’s incredibly inspiring.
“If she can do it, I can do it!”
“Oh, that gives me a great idea for a blog post!”
“Ah, I never thought of it that way!”
Then, it starts to wear on us. Suddenly, we feel that our work isn’t looking so great. We’re doubting our ability to find our place in our niche. We find it hard to make progress on what we’re working on because we’re so busy taking a look at others’.
Now, of course, a healthy awareness of the industry is a good thing, solopreneur. Nothing productive happens in a 24/7 silo.
But there’s a big difference between competitive research and comparison. So, when you feel yourself falling down the endless spiral that is the comparison trap, it’s time to go back into your own little bubble and keep your eyes on your own paper.
Chris Brogan said it this way: “You can’t run a race looking sideways.”
Brené Brown made this eye-opening point in The Gifts of Imperfection: “It’s easy to see how difficult it is to make time for the important things such as creativity, gratitude, joy, and authenticity when we’re spending enormous amounts of energy conforming and competing.”
Need a shorter mantra to repeat next time you feel yourself slipping? Say this: Compare = despair. (h/t Coach Jennie)
There are a million more things we could say about this, but we’ll leave it here: Keep your eyes on your own paper, fellow solopreneur. That’s where the magic happens.
P.S. -- The comparison trap is just one of the things that threatens your sanity as a solopreneur. We wrote the book on how to maintain that sanity. Just click the beautiful banner below to find out more.
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