Advice for disorganized people who compare themselves to others

Over the years I’ve had a lot of clients who like to ask about where they stand in relation to my other clients:

“Do other clients have as much paper as I do?”

“Do other clients have you in their lives for as long as I have?”

“Do other clients hold onto as many newspapers as I do?”

These are surprisingly hard questions to answer; “other clients” and their tendencies are hard to amalgamate on the spot, especially given their vast diversity. I entertain them for the sake of good conversation, but the answers are rarely satisfying or useful. I recently heard therapist and author Lori Gottlieb answer this the right way. She said in a recent interview:

“I always say to people, you need to compare yourself to yourself. Where were you before and where have you come?” - Lori Gottlieb

I devoured Gottlieb’s book this summer, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed which is full of applicable wisdom gleaned from the therapy room.

Buy the book here, listen to the interview snippet in Instagram here, and stop comparing yourself to others! (Taking my own advice on this one.)