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Health & Fitness

The Grass Isn't Always Greener On The Other Side

Life can be a rat race but who are we competing against?

Have you ever noticed that most people have it more together than you?  Their yards are greener (and weed-free).  Their houses cleaner and bigger, their kids more obedient.  They are organized and they always seem to have it together.

It's not the truth, of course.  It's only our perception that tricks us into believing that everyone else is doing it better than us.  But it doesn't keep us from comparing ourselves to that lying facade and desperately trying to keep up and in some cases, even out-do. 

Or is it just me?  I do it all of the time.  I know I shouldn't, I just can't help myself.  Even though I know down deep that it's a lie, I always wonder if I'm not quite up to par and that's just enough to kick my insecurities into over drive.

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We're all caught up in this rat race and for what? To try to out-do, out-clean, out-garden, out-parent, out-live each other?  What's the point?  Will it make me happier to out-do someone?  It never has so I don't see the point in my continued efforts here.  Even if I'm not trying to out-do anyone, the pressure is always there to keep up.  And I feel like a failure when I can't.

Here's an example.  If I'm going to have company over I will make a plan to clean my house.  I scrub, I dust, I mop and launder.  Apparently, because I want to fool these people into thinking that my house is always clean (which it isn't) and therefore I am worthy of a clean house award that is comparable to a nobel prize which will bring world peace and pay a lump sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS. 

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At least, that's what you would think with all the ferver with which I clean my house and the stress that it brings.  THE WORLD DEPENDS ON IT, after all.  What would I do with myself if they found some dust on my baseboards!?  *gasp*  It all sounds pretty ridiculous when I say it out loud. 

I wonder then, am I really trying to fool my guests into thinking I'm a good housekeeper and by default worthy of their praise?  Or am I trying to convince myself that I'm worthy of praise at all? Is it more about them or about me? And if it is about me then I am in control here and can make the decision to measure myself less by my clean house or perfectly organized life and more by the amazing person I am.

I'm starting to realize that all of this ferver is a huge waste of my time.  I can be happy with everything being a mess- perfectly unperfect if you will.  That's not to say I'm going to throw all sense of responsible living out the window, I'm just saying that I'm tired of being a slave to it. 

There are so many things in my life that I "have to do".  Or so I think.  Maybe it's time to re-evaluate that. Do I really "have to" do these things because my life depends on it? Uh, probabably not.  After all, when it all boils down, all I really "have to" do is eat, sleep and be happy.  Oh, and pay my taxes.

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