Comparisons

I read this by a guy called Naval Ravikant.  To me he his talking sense. “When I was young, I had a lot of jealousy in me... It still crops up every now and then. It's such a poisonous emotion because, at the end of the day, you're no better off, you're unhappier, and the person you're jealous of is still successful or good-looking, or whatever they are.​
I realized that all these people that I was jealous of, I couldn't just cherry-pick and choose little aspects of their life. I couldn't say I want his body; I want her money; I want his personality.
​You have to be that person. Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you're not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100% swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous.”
To me it says a lot about dis-satisfaction of who I am.  I am unique.  There is only one of me and the mould was broken when I came about.  Snowflakes may be similar but no two are the same.  Similarity of interests may attract me to certain ones, but I am no one but myself.  What I bring to the table is unique.
This highlights for me one of the dangers of social media.  With the wrong sort of pride I compare myself with another.  What I see on screen shows a person’s best with me being dis-satisfied as I see myself at my worst.  It is not comparing apples with apples.
But no comparison need to be made anyway.  There is a right sort of pride.  It has to do with seeing myself as I am.  Not comparing myself as adequate or inadequate against another but comparing myself with my built-in potential.  To me contentment is about comparing myself with myself, warts and all, and being the best I can be.  Another may be more talented, more handsome, more intelligent than me, but my race is only incidentally against them.  The race I need to win is the race with myself.  Where I end up in the field is secondary to running my race well by maximizing my potential.