Comparison is the Thief of Joy

Teddy Roosevelt famously said that Comparison is the Thief of Joy. And that thief can steal more than your joy. It can steal your riches, too.

Today’s Classic is republished from The Physician Philosopher. You can see the original here.

Enjoy!

When your life happens in three to four year epochs until your early to mid thirties, happiness and contentment can be hard to find when everything is said and done.  After you finish training, that’s it.  There really isn’t another “step” in the same way there used to be when we looked forward to finishing undergrad, medical school, residency, and then fellowship. Ironically, your unhappiness can peak after finishing training, because – as Teddy Roosevelt famously said – “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

In private practice, after you become a board-certified partner, that’s it.  You are currently living the dream.  Until you look around at what other people are doing with their money.  Comparisons can steal your joy.

In addition to this, I would argue that comparisons not only steal your joy.  They have the potential to catalyze your road to burnout.  It’s another factor that can steal your identity, increase financial stress, and worsen your situation.

Climbing the Ranks

It’s an unfortunate consequence of hanging around other people.  Because we mirror and brain-couple with other people, we can often assume characteristics from other people, including their goals.

For example, in academic medicine, it is an expectation that your job after finishing is to climb the academic ladder.  You might start as a clinical instructor until you receive your full board certification.  That will allow you to become an assistant professor.  Hopefully, after some diligent work, you will have tackled the standard for applying for promotion to the rank of associate professor.

With the promotion comes additional money, possibly some more vacation, and more notoriety within the institution.  The same phenomenon happens in corporate America.

This all sounds well and good.  Unless, of course, progressing through the ranks is not one of your major goals.  Maybe you only want to research things you are passionate about, and you don’t want to publish at a rate that your hospital requires for promotion.  Perhaps you don’t want to do research at all.  Many people go into academia because they love teaching and practicing clinical medicine.

Yet, when we look at our current station and compare it to others, it can steal our joy.  Will we be okay staying at an assistant professor rank 20 years later when our colleagues are progressing up the ladder?

Cars, Houses, and the Lot

Once you crystallize your goals, base your contentment on those goals (and not the goals of others), and institute a Hell Yes Policy – you will find that you are able to find contentment even when you seemingly have “less”.

Of course, this is a round about way to encourage you to be happy with one of the key steps in reaching financial independence – frugality.

This contentment with less has proven to be a super power for many who have found early financial independence.  And, financial independence is the escape hatch to physician burnout.

Today, sit down and design your life.  Be intentional.  Don’t let other people dictate the direction of your career and life.

Have you created a specific list of your goals?  Are you working towards them, or towards someone else’s?  How did you get on the right track?  Leave a comment below.