Author Unknown

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied with life. But one day he saw a swan. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot, which has two colours. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.”

The crow then approached the parrot. The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock. I have only two colours, but the peacock has multiple colours.”

The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock. “Dear peacock,” the crow said, “you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”

The peacock replied, “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happy bird on the planet. But because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for past few days I have been thinking that if I were a crow, I could happily roam everywhere.”

That’s our problem too. We make unnecessary comparison with others and become sad. We don’t value what God has given us. This all leads to the vicious cycle of unhappiness. Learn to be happy in what you have instead of looking at what you don’t have. There will always be someone who will have more or less than you have. The person who is satisfied with what he/she has, is the happiest person in the world.

Meditation: Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. – Hebrews 13:5

You will succeed because Jesus loves You!

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Be a blessing; share this with your loved ones.

Upward social comparison is a natural part of the human condition. It's a survival mechanism.

Tens to hundreds of thousands of years ago when humankind were not much better off than any other animal struggling for survival, before civilizations or written history, human beings traveled in clans, not too different than a small community of lions or monkeys (social animals who also compete amongst eachother). Our mammalian brains have developed in a way that constantly seeks out potential "superiors" - so that we can either best them and increase our chances of survival, or strive to be on good terms with them to do the same.

Modern psychology has gone a long way in explaining common phenomena of human behavior such as this. There are pages and pages of research papers on this stuff. I'd advise you do a google or youtube search on social comparison and learn a bit.

Practicing gratitude intentionally and regularly for the good things in our lives can prevent one's mind from getting caught up in comparing, a hard-wired homo-sapien tendency which can obviously reduce happiness and quality of life when it becomes too frequent. However this gratitude need not be directed towards supernatural entities. It could simply be directed to whoever directly or indirectly responsible for the item of gratitude in question (parents, friends, chef, grocery store clerk, butcher, or even yourself).