Our brains have a hard time knowing whether or not we’re doing well in life just by looking at our own lives. They’re constantly looking for comparisons to make that determination. That determination plays a crucial role in how we feel about ourselves.

Social media and reality shows are like poison to our comparison-seeking brains. All it sees are cherry-picked images of people with bigger houses, newer cars, and more expensive clothes taking luxurious vacations. So the conclusion our brains draw is that our lives are borderline worthless when “everyone” is living like a rockstar billionaire.

I’m sure you’re all logically aware that social media doesn’t portray an accurate image of someone’s life, but it doesn’t matter to your brain. As long as it gets that false data, you’re fighting an uphill battle against feeling inadequate.

We already tend to look at others, focus on things we’d want for ourselves, and completely disregard the possible sacrifices or downsides the person has had to suffer.

Social media is like that times a thousand.

Be very careful about the data you feed your brain.

Get new letters by email

You’ll also get my checklist of 5 things I remind myself of every day to stay in a healthy state of mind.