Under everything (or almost everything) is fear and love.
The fear is we are unloved. Comparing yourself to someone else is just a way of saying: If I were they, I would be loved.
Just now a friend writes to say she is having a bad day.
She writes poetry (almost) every day and here is part of what she wrote today:
I can’t find my shine.
Instead, I cower like a small shameful beast
Seeking cover in the earth,
Too small in heart to come into the open.
Too small in heart to come into the open.
A full heart might not be loved.
The full me? Unlovable?
Nothing is worse.
Better to invest energy in measuring the heart of another, to focus on how I don’t measure up, must measure down.