17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
Brian Johnson explores how comparison and envy derail your progress. He draws on wisdom from various authors to show why measuring yourself against others keeps you stuck, and argues that focusing on your own improvement is the only game worth playing.
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. We're kind of on a roll with the whole envy squishing theme, so why not one more? In our last plus one we talked about the fact that that if we're going to compare ourselves to others, please don't. We might as well do it right. Recognizing the fact that everyone experiences ups and downs en route to their particular flavor of awesome. Now that wisdom reminds me of some parallel wisdom from Alan Stein's great book, Raise youe Game. Alan's a peak performance coach. His book is awesome. Check out the notes. Here's what he has to say about Envy. I quote, my friend Paul Biancardi of ESPN loves to say, you will always lose the comparison game. Why is that? Because it's rigged. It has no function besides enlarging self doubt. Alan continues by saying, I'm typing this chapter on board a flight to South Dakota. Among the 250 passengers on this plane, I. I can quickly find someone better looking funnier, more successful, taller, more muscular, smarter. It won't take long to find someone who scores higher than me on almost any metric. End quote. He concludes by saying, if I use these people as my measuring stick to determine my self worth and value, I will always lose the comparison game. You want to know who always loses that game? You and me and everyone who plays it. But only every single time. Which reminds me of Byron Katie's wisdom. She says, when I argue with reality, I lose, but only 100% of the time. And it also reminds me of Ralph Waldo Emerson's wisdom. He says, envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide. And that's today's plus one. Let's channel our inner Faulkner and play the optimized game. He said, don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. Oh P.S. you know who always wins the optimized game? You and me and everyone who plays it. But only everyone. Every single time. Remember, simply striving to be your best is a pre win one plus one plus one for the win.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
What's THE Most Creative Act in the Universe?: Turning Around Glitches (Heroic +1 #2024)
