Don't Use a Yardstick To Measure Up (via Beyond Success)

Don’t Use A Yardstick To Measure Up August 4, 2009

Hello all.

NOT TRYING TO MEASURE UP

The real secret to my personal life of beyond success, was the moment that I began stop using a yardstick to measure up to other people. I refuse to measure my accomplishments and failures with that of others. This is because I understand that the yardstick is actually a form of the ego. Like I’ve stated in my previous posts, the ego is desperate for survival. It needs to cling onto some fixed idea in order for it to survive. The idea of trying to have accomplished a particular thing at a certain time or age, is all ego.

I believe that the way the school system is structured actually strengthens the ego. For example, the idea of finishing college in 4 years, following orders from your teacher to get good grades, is a mental and social conditioning that enables people to start using the yardstick to measure up to others. The social constructed individual takes this into the workplace, and the ego chooses to hang out with people that identity with similar conditioning. So using a mental yardstick to measure up is actually something people, through social conditioning start to live up to. They begin comparing themselves, because there is a certain “time” things need to get done.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of having to always trust this yardstick doesn’t feel natural.
This has nothing to do with being either an ambitious or lazy individual. It’s about being in your natural flow at the time you are meant to be. I write a lot also about being in the present moment in my previous posts. This all ties into not using a yardstick, because when you are fully present in what you are doing, the thoughts of “measuring up” to others, slowly diminishes and ceases to exist. That’s why I believe the yardstick is a form of the ego, because it takes you out of the present moment, and instead of doing what needs to be done, you look outward for suggestions, when the real answers are within you to begin with.

“When You Try hard, You Die hard”
-Kanye West

The great thing about the way life works is that everything comes when it’s supposed to come. Nothing in nature is ever forced. If you look at the way the trees grow overtime, they actually just grow naturally. They don’t try hard to grow, they don’t compare their size to other trees. One tree doesn’t try to grow taller than the other tree, it just grows at the level that is natural for the tree, neither does one tree try to shrink to make the tree next to it look bigger.

AN EXAMPLE FROM NATURE
The tree will lose leaves, and grow new ones. It’s just being. That’s what I feel more people should consider. Just being. Your personal growth may come really quickly or may come at a slower pace. You may have a run of tremendous accomplishment, and a time for a few disappointments. Begin now to be okay with the pace of whatever is best for you in your own life. Let it flow. Everything happens at it’s own pace and it’s own time.
Put your faith in yourself and you and express gratitude for the small victories along the way. Allow good things to come and don’t rely on the yardstick of other people, to determine where you should be, or what you should have. You are actually at a better place, than you realize at this moment.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
-Steve Jobs

A PERSONAL EXAMPLE-THE SUCCESS OF THIS BLOG
An example in my own life is that when I began to see a lot of success with this blog. To be honest, I couldn’t really keep up with the success of this blog at the time. When I started seeing 80+ visitors to my blog I got a little scared. From going to 0 views a day for 6 straight months, to my readership growing to 80+ was a stretch for me at the time. This fear has taught me to except what is and let it be. I have to be willing to accept the fact that I’m moving to higher levels with my writing. I’m learning how to accept the victories I’ve been blessed with along the way. I have to stay with this flow, because this is where I’m at.

One year ago, I couldn’t say that was the case at all. Two years ago I operated at a much slower pace of success. Two years ago things seemed to move slower and things felt muddy. So acknowledging that I’m in a higher place for me creatively is key. It’s not about whether others say it’s a success or not, but really what I honestly know from what I know for myself. Begin now to trust your flow, your own pace. This is a more reliable way for you to go about life.

Don’t use a yardstick to measure up, it’s not reliable.

+Baker