Sammy’s Carrots

Comparison can kill your dreams.

Case in point: Sammy didn’t realize he was just a pony. He would prance into a show ring and go up against the big guys without a care in the world. I liked that about him, and my daughter could have kept riding him (she shared a lease with another girl), but she was growing, and he wasn’t. So she began riding a bigger horse named Louie.

The problem was that Sammy and Louie were stable mates, right next to each other. Because of that proximity, my daughter intentionally gave Sammy some love and just as many carrots as she gave Louie.

This, however, became an issue for Sammy. One day, Shannon plopped Louie’s carrots in his feed box, but when she walked over to do the same for Sammy, he was so busy staring at Louie’s stash he didn’t even notice, and a nice bunch of carrots lay waiting for him to no avail.

Sammy had set his eyes on Louie’s carrots, and he was clearly transfixed in that direction.

What has your attention today? Sometimes it’s a good idea to think about what we’re thinking about, especially when we’re falling into the comparison trap, and I do mean “trap.”

Comparison entices us and then snaps us shut, locks us up, and leaves us vulnerable. Surely, it is nobody’s friend, whether animals or people. It’s so easy to stare at someone else’s stash–success, possessions, abilities, or relationships, whatever transfixes our eyes and convinces us that we lack or, at best, pale in comparison. But whatever lures our focus away from our own blessings can rob us of the contentment to enjoy and explore our own assets.

Staring at other people’s dreams shuts down our own.

Thought for today: Forget about what your neighbor has and what you don’t have. Take another look. You just might be surprised what you can do with who you are and what you already have.