I don't like comparing myself to people. It gives me some sort of barrier that I don't even need to break, let alone set as a personal goal of mine. Comparisons make you feel as though you're only good enough in someone else's eyes, not your own. It keeps you from forming your own personal goals, and it makes you base your own accomplishments based on someone else's magnitude of success. You aren't trying your own best; you end up being someone else's "best." You think you're doing good enough for everyone else but not your own. Is that how people define success? Is this why parents are always comparing their kids to other people's? Who decided that just because my kids graduated from higher-ranked universities than another couple's kids means that my kids are any better than theirs? Who decided that just because their child ended up making more money than another child meant that they've definitely become more successful than the other child?

You can define success in any way you want. If making a ton of money means being successful, then so be it. If going to a UC instead of a Cal-State means being successful, then so be it. If landing a tough internship and getting hired right away means being more successful, then more power to ya, but only if it's on your own personal terms and definition of success. You aren't successful just because someone else told you, and vice versa. If that's what you personally define as success, then by all means, go for your goals.

Get out of the habit of thinking, "I'm good as so-and-so" or "I'm better than so-and-so because I did this." You should be as good as YOU can be, not someone else.

People tend to mistake comparison with competition. You justify your habit of "comparing" by saying that everything's a tough competition. You don't really have to make anything a competition because it shows that you rely on other people's progression in order to motivate you to do better. You don't need someone else's success to tell you what the bare minimum you have to reach. Nobody's a standard. Nobody's an average, including you. If you have to rely on competition to want to reach your goals, you have to find it in yourself the motivation and drive that you need, not because someone else had already reached their goal. I'm not saying that healthy competition is terrible, but comparing yourself and making yourself feel bad just because someone else achieved their goal and you didn't isn't really the way to operate in every aspect of your life. Your time of success will come, only if you know what goals you have to reach and you work tirelessly for it. You don't need someone else's success as motivation, you only need you.