Did you happen to go to Harvard? No? Me neither. On any given year, Harvard will accept only a little over 3% of the applicants, and that’s the percentage of those who actually applied. The best of the best apply to Harvard. The top 1%. The valedictorians. The perfect SAT scores. It must be amazing to get an acceptance letter to Harvard University—unbelievable, actually, maybe even surreal.

But after the letter, and the excitement, and the fanfare, it has to be an unimaginably difficult road. These students were presumably #1 in their class and now they will spend the next four years surrounded by students of the exact same caliber. So what does that make them now? For the first time, are they now average? Or worse? They’ve never been average, let alone below average, in their life. Even though nothing has changed about them, they stepped onto Harvard’s campus, and immediately became average. But are they?

We do this to ourselves all the time. We compare ourselves to others and then think less of ourselves. If you hear, “Ivy league,” do you think, ‘smarter than me’? If you see a model, do you think, ‘better than me’? We have this harsh inner-critic that makes these blanket assumptions that aren’t necessarily true and definitely arent helpful. Today, take notice of all of the comparisons you make, good or bad, and try to stop them. Be proud of you and own who you are without comparing yourself to anyone. It’s increedibly unhealthy—ask any student at Harvard. And if you happen to be at Harvard, and you find yourself last in your class, tell yourself, “I’m still really smart!”

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!

Beth