Okay, I’m a competitive person by nature.  Seriously, I’ll race you to the car, get sweaty over a card game and fight to the finish even if it’s a silly game of Headbandz.  I’m an achiever, a sports fanatic and I cannot stand to lose.  There are several people in the world who could truly care less about who wins a game and it definitely won’t keep them up at night, but we all have an underlying human spirit of competition that reveals itself in the ugliest form; comparison.

Comparison of who has what and ultimately comparison of who is achieving the best at life.  We all fall victim to this, but GIRLS do you feel me?! Are you watching everyone’s lives through social media thinking they are just killing the game and you have the Mt. Everest of laundry in the guest room that is too overwhelming to touch (or is this just me)?  Do you have similar dreams and aspirations, but you’ve already counted yourself out because you are watching someone else succeed at something your heart also desires to step into?  Let’s dig a little deeper.  What about not only comparing ourselves to all the random people we follow and admire, but people we actually know and love. Yikes.  This is where we unfortunately flirt with the line of jealousy and lessen our need to encourage, lift others up or support them because we’ve made it an invisible rat race.  Are we avoiding liking the post, sharing someone else’s accomplishment or believing in their ability to do well?  Why? Is it for pride, a boost of self esteem, confidence in our own achieving, to have the last word or for a mental trophy case of who has the most wins?

Here is a truth we all need to hear; an individual mental trophy case holds weight and room in our minds that often becomes too heavy to bear.  The more we try to define our “success” in life by our accolades or what we have vs. strangers and our friends, we come to believe the lie that what we’re doing is never enough; we need more.  This isn’t new information, but there is always going to be someone who has it worse or better than you.  All of our circumstances are different, but there is a way to even the playing field.  Call it a cheesy line, but we could all win if we get on the same team.  Choose to champion the people who have dreams, talents and gifts that we can actually learn from.  The whole women supporting women movement, yes I’m for that.  My favorite bloggers + instagrammers are people who have built a community and have a humble heart to share and find ways to help others grow personally; @emilyspeir, @thosebyrnegirls, @msrachelhollis and @cottonstem do this beautifully just to name a few.  It took me quite sometime to (the best that I can) commit to the Spirit’s nudge to step into more vulnerability, transparency and breaking out of the chains of comparison to share more and write more on insta and also through happilyhastagblessed, because there are thousands who are already doing this.  My friend Scotti Beth fought with this same battle for several years and welcomed me to come alongside and pray for her.  If you know her at all you know she is a vice of encouragement and has a heart completely after the Lord.  She has shared with me her worries, fears and desires to start her own blog and we’ve talked about the numerous ways the enemy can craft insecurities and heighten comparison to keep us from following a calling.  Scotti Beth has an incredible gift at championing others and here’s my chance to champion her.  She launched her new blog simplyscottibeth.com and I am more than confident you will be blessed by her writing.  I’m for her, in it with her and we are doing our best to support each other in our endeavors and I pray we can all do this for one another more.  Find a friend to champion, not fight, and this way we’re all killing the game.