An accident can turn your life upside down in a way that you never thought was possible!  And the worst part of it is that your recovery can actually be worse than the accident itself!  

During your recovery, you are going to find yourself researching the recovery stories of others who had the same type of accident or injury.  As you are reading them, you are going to question yourself over and over again.  

Why am I not completely recovered when so and so was ready to get back to life after only two weeks?

Why can’t I drive yet, when they are taking their first road trip?

I want you to get rid of all of those questions now and stop comparing yourself to everyone else in this world!  If I can convince you to do one thing during your recovery process, it will be to stop comparing yourself to others.  

There are many reasons to not compare yourself to others, but here are the top three:

1.) Discouragement

Over the years, I have heard the phrase, “Why can’t I do this yet, when they can?” so many times.  When you start to compare yourself to someone else with the same injury, you are not going to get the answers that you are looking for.  Instead, you will find yourself looking at a whole bunch of disappointment.  

Let me give you a little nugget of truth when it comes to your injury… It is your injury, no one else’s!  You are not anyone else, which means that you are not going to heal on the same schedule as anyone that you are comparing yourself to.  Some injuries may sound the same, but yours could be worse than someone else’s.  

Recovery is more of a marathon than a sprint.  It takes a long time, but you keep pushing forward until you reach your goal.  It’s going to take time before you are healed, but you will get there in your own time.  

2.) Focusing on Things that You Shouldn’t 

How many hours do you spend each day comparing yourself to others?  Now, imagine what you could do with that same number of hours if you could focus on the things that truly mattered!  

I recommend that you choose to focus on what you have been able to accomplish since you started the recovery process.  Then, keep working on your exercises, as well as your own personal goals while you are completing your recovery.  

When you start to do this, you will be amazed at how much different your own recovery will feel!

3.) Losing the Battle and the War

When you find yourself comparing things, are they always the same items, or are you comparing things that are completely different?  Think of this… When you go to weigh a bag of apples in the store and find it to be five pounds, how many apples are in that bag? Now, go weigh a bag of grapes, and keep putting grapes in that bag until it reaches five pounds.  Do you have the same number of grapes as you do apples? Nope! You may have the same weight in each bag, but you have more items in one and less in the other.  

The same thing holds true when you are comparing yourself to others during recovery.  Your bodies are different, your weights are probably different, and heck, you probably are not the same height either!  How can you compare yourself to someone who is not you? And once you start comparing, when do you know to stop? Do you stop after a few months or do you keep doing it for the rest of your life? 

I urge you to stop the comparison game right now and just embrace who you are and how far you have come already.  You are doing you and that is the most important thing now and always.  

Pin this post for later!