In How to Escape the Comparison Trap, Becka's first step is to...
Step 1. Clean out your RSS and pare it down to the best of the best.
First and foremost, I pared down the places I visited online. There’s no need for me to see what every single one of my peers did this week because, inevitably, I will compare it to what I did, what I accomplished, where I shot, where I was featured, whom I got to collaborate with, etc.
So my experience with cleaning out my RSS feed was different than Becka's. It was never a consious decision, but I don't follow a single graphic design blog. I follow a lot of interior/home design blogs and photography blogs so I haven't really had the problem of comparing myself to them.
The biggest insight I had in this step? Wedding blogs. I deleted all three that I was following. It's not that I don't like them or think they serve a purpose, I do. But they don't serve a purpose for me. I'm not engaged or even in a serious relationship. Reading these blogs only reminded me of that. Everyday. I don't see any point in putting myself through that.
In all I deleted about half of the blogs I was following. It wasn't easy. There were several that I wanted to hang on to, but in the end these were the reasons I had to let go. Some of them just didn't apply to me, like wedding blogs. There were a couple, written by people that I know, that just made me feel bad. It's nothing against them personally, but I believe my time is better spent reading content that is uplifting. And there were a bunch that I just didn't read, which means I must not have liked them that much in the first place. Twelve blogs made the cut, and their links are in the sidebar.
It hasn't been life changing, but it feels good to have everything pared down. It's much quicker to read through new posts in the morning, and now they start my day on a good note. I think this is going to be something I need to put on my calendar to do at least once a year.
If you missed it here's the first post in this series:
Internet Envy
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