Summary: Competition and comparison should only be with yourself. Stay in your own lane, and get better every single day at being YOU.

As the entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant described it, “The enemy of peace of mind is expectations drilled into you by society and other people”.

But I think that you should also recognise, and follow your own ambition; what’s not alright is if you decide to study medicine or law without considering all the other options and the bigger picture of what you’re comitting to. I believe that your youth, in high school and university is the time to explore and discover what you truly enjoy. Take risks and don’t do what everyone else does. Find your own unique path exploring what you love, and once you find that thing that makes you tick, pursue it with a relentless passion and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Never compare yourself to others - envy is the enemy of happiness. Besides, no one’s journey and circumstances will be exactly the same as yours, so why bother with comparison? If anything, try your best to learn from the highs and lows from their experiences and make some informed judgements on how you can become better yourself. That being said, there is a counterargument that was brought up by one of my good friends upon reading an initial version of this post, that is, “envy is also ur biggest motivation in some cases… i mean if there werent like better ppl out there, i wouldnt even study”, which is a fair point. I think it does depend on the type of person you are and what works best for you.

It’s been years for me, and I don’t think I’m even close to finding my true life passions. But that’s okay. Everyone has their own journey.

As another one of my good friends said, ‘u can flunk every exam and that's less of an L than getting forced into med’.

Another one of my mates said this: ‘It’s after a lot of shitty years, realising that my happiness doesn’t derive from fulfilling expectations of others. [Instead], it’s about fulfilling expectations of yourself’.

Life is single player. The only person you have to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

Live for yourself. If you don’t choose a path, life chooses one for you.

Comparison kills creativity; a Crayola may complain that it is not sharp enough, and a pencil may complain that it is not colourful enough. Never compare yourself with others, and be the absolute best at being yourself, because that’s who you’re in competition with.