They say comparison is the thief of joy, and this, as it turns out, is one cliché that has a raft of empirical evidence backing it up. But there is another truth about social comparison ...

So don't hold yourself up to some outside vague standard of greatness. Judge your work by your principles and leave comparison out of the equation.

“Comparison is the thief of joy,” Teddy Roosevelt once said. Mark Twain felt even more strongly about it, exchanging the word death for thief. Before ever hearing of these quotes, I learned ...