Isn’t this often how we see ourselves? Wondering if we are “less than or equal to” some ideal we aspire to? This gets particularly brutal when we are comparing ourselves to another person who is “successful” at something we would like to do. And does anyone other than fools or narcissists ever really believe they are “greater than?”
This is the wrong paradigm for living, if only because your life will never follow the same trajectory as another. Seems obvious, right?
And yet, it’s so easy to fall into this kind of thinking. And of course we will always lose in the battle to “be better than someone else.” Thinking like this is an internal competition that no one cares about except you.
Life is what it is and we make out of what we will. Just do the things that give you joy, or at least try to find joy in the things you do, and make sure you help others. Everything else will take care of itself.