Green with envy?

4 Ways to Stop Feeling Jealous of Other Women 

Remember high school? The social politics were ridiculous. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t wait to be an adult! 

I knew that I would grow up, and all of that “popular kids” vs “nobodies” stuff would go away. 

Somehow, though, “grown-up life” ended up feeling like more of the same. Except now the comparisons were of new homes, jobs and designer diaper bags! 

The thing is, that as long as you are looking for it, you will always find someone who has something that seems better than what you have. 

There is always a woman who just seems to have you beat in some way. She seems more successful. She seems to have her life together, is smarter, more charming. More whatever.

A great post; go read the tips here: http://www.girlsgonestrong.com/4-ways-to-stop-feeling-jealous-of-other-women/

And then pop back to read my confession about exactly this topic.

I'm known to be a pull-up machine. Like, addicted to doing them, addicted to tracking them, addicted to helping others do them, addicted to talking about them. I'm planning to do a million pounds of pull-ups over the course of the year, and have a goal of a single-arm chin-up. Yesterday my trainer & another trainer made jokes about me lat-punching people. I'm all about the pull-ups.

At the end of 2014, I celebragged on Facebook about my 5280 pulls, and challenged others to a competition for 2015. I somehow had 7 takers on that challenge, and so I created a spreadsheet for us all to track, complete with a weighted component & graphs.

Game on, bitches, come watch me kick ass!

And then I started losing.

By "losing," of course, I only mean I'm not in first place. I'm bouncing around 3rd/4th. 1st place is solidly owned by a friend who's turned into a pull-up BEAST, consistently doing massive amounts of them. She's doing about 250 a week, versus my "mere" 200, so every week she pulls farther and farther away. As of yesterday, March 17, she's done 2660 and I've done 2160.

I've had days where this has frustrated me, and I've thought about when/how I could add more, to at least keep up. Because dammit, this is supposed to be MY THING. Yet I'm in a high-stress work season, where I can't add more, even more of something that's so easy for me. So maybe I'll add more when this ends, I'll have 8.5 months to catch up to her. And surely she'll have to dial back once HER high-stress work season kicks in. Yeah, we'll be close by year-end. And, I weigh 20 lbs more, so at the very least I should be able to win the weighted component.

No.

Stop. Breathe. Think.

You know what my plan calls for? 130 a week. Not the 200 I'm actually doing. Right now I should be at 1437, but I'm actually at 2160.

Hold up! Stop and reread that: I'm at 150% of my plan. And note that my plan is seriously ambitious: 6900 pulls over the course of the year, a MEELLION pounds of pull-ups, which is 130% compared to last year.

But I'm currently on track to pull up 1,500,000 pounds over the year, which is HALF A MILLION POUNDS MORE THAN MY GOAL. That's completely insane! Maintaining this pace means I'll do an impressive 200% of the pulls I did last year.

I'm doing a ton more than last year, a ton more than my plan, because of the competitive spirit, because 3 other badasses keep raising the bar on what's normal, week after week, because of this woman that was making me so damn jealous.

When I truly stopped to absorb this, I realized I should be thanking this badass beast, not feeling jealous of her. I should encourage her pull-ups every single chance I get, because she is pulling ME up along with her! I owe my success to HER success.

For me, this is no longer a competition to beat each other. This is a competition against gravity, against tendinitis, to see just how much crazy we can pack into that single spreadsheet without injury or burnout. I want us all to do insane numbers FOR OURSELVES, whatever those numbers may be, regardless of the rest.

There's a dude in our competition who has been battling a chronic disease, and surgery recovery, and so many issues, it's a wonder he can do any pull-ups. For all it matters, he can come in last place with the same number of pull-ups I can log in a month, and he still wins at kicking life's ass.

And it's also true for me, and for the beast out in front of the numbers.

As long as we are still kicking & pulling, we are all winning in our individual game of life.