Our goal should be to keep improving ourselves, rather than “being the best.”

Someone who feels the need to be “the best” should ask himself, “Why do I really have to be better than others? What is so awful if someone else is better than me in any given area?”

People who feel the need to be “the best” often suffer much anxiety. They frequently tell themselves, “If I am not the best, then I am a failure. I am nothing.”

There is no basis for this. In ultimate terms, no human can really say who is best. Comparing yourself to anyone else is arbitrary — so why cause yourself misery by doing so?

-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Happiness,” p.130

If you’re a regular reader here, you have probably noticed that my productivity has fallen off lately. I’ve been crazy busy, both at my day job and at home, so haven’t had the bandwidth to do much (if any) writing. I hope this changes soon.