Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.

 “Look at him, he is so good at studies, he will be a big man one day, you better learn to repair scooters so that at least you can be a mechanic when you grow up, as you are a loser”, these words still echo in my mind, even after 15 years, said by someone close, who I know will never think ill of me. OUCH IRONY HURTS!!!

But why did the person who is so close say it??

The answer is simple, this happens because we compare apples with oranges. The grass is always green on the other side, the greener the grass is, the worst it gets for you. Knowing that one day the cattle of destiny will graze on that same grass on the other side, still a seed of doubt is planted in our mind at an early stage & you wonder and waste your efforts in irrigating your life with unnecessary seeds making your life greener, knowing that it will be chopped untimely, still you do it. This “YOU” I keep mentioning is not any random guy, this “YOU” is all of us.

Someone asked me, “Why can’t I have a boyfriend like Edward Cullen? Why can’t my love life be like that of Romeo & Juliet? Why can’t I be as lucky as Captain Jack Sparrow??”

I could not answer then, I found it lame, but now I don’t and I know the answer. Don’t compare your life story to those you watch in movies. They are written by scriptwriters, yours is written by GOD…

I was doing some research on the Japanese culture and I came across a very interesting story, which touched my heart and opened my eyes. The story goes on like this….

Once upon a time, a samurai, a very proud warrior, came to see a Zen Master one day. The samurai was very famous, but looking at the beauty of the Master and the Grace of the moment, he suddenly felt inferior.

He said to the Master, "Why am I feeling inferior? Just a moment ago everything was okay. As I entered your court suddenly I felt inferior. I have never felt like that before. I have faced death many times, and I have never felt any fear -- why am I now feeling frightened?"

The Master said, "Wait. When everyone else has gone, I will answer. "

People continued the whole day to come and see the Master, and the samurai was getting more and more tired waiting. By evening the room was empty, and the samurai said,

"Now, can you answer me?"

The Master said, "Come outside."

It was a full moon night, the moon was just rising on the horizon. And he said, "Look at these trees. This tree is high in the sky and this small one beside it. They both have existed beside my window for years, and there has never been any problem. The smaller tree has never said to the big tree, 'Why do I feel inferior before you?' This tree is small, and that tree is big -- why have I never heard a whisper of it?"

The samurai said, "Because they can't compare."

The Master replied, "Then you need not ask me. You know the answer."

The mantra of life lies in living your own life and shaping your destiny by your own hands, as the way you will it. As the way you want it. When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. Why are we in this never ending race to compete and compare? Does it really give you happiness? We all know the answers just like that samurai warrior, we just don’t care to see it and believe it. How do you expect the world to believe in you when you do not believe in yourself? Think new, achieve new heights, do something different, so that even if you fail, you can look yourself into the mirror and say, yes I tried to be different.

The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot. DO NOT BE AN IDIOT. I know the potential of mankind. The best and worst of it. Poverty, inequality, wars, communal violence everything will be eradicated in seconds the day we collectively stop comparing out insides to someone else’s outsides.

-Tushar Sharma