00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:05.977

Kevin Lowe: They say comparison is the thief of joy, but here's the thing that everybody's

00:00:05.977 --> 00:00:09.777

Kevin Lowe: failed to tell you, is that comparison isn't actually the enemy.

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Kevin Lowe: It's the way you're going about it that's the problem. Inside of today's episode,

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Kevin Lowe: I'm going to show you how we can all begin to flip the script on comparison

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Kevin Lowe: and no longer have it steal your joy, but instead have it fueling your growth.

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Kevin Lowe: And the best part is I'm going to break it down into super simple applications

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Kevin Lowe: that you can begin to implement right away.

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Kevin Lowe: Matter of fact, I narrowed it down to three simple ways that you can begin to

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Kevin Lowe: use comparison for your benefit.

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Kevin Lowe: My friend, this is episode 413 of Great Grace and Inspiration.

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Kevin Lowe: And just as a side note, in case you're new here, my friend,

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Kevin Lowe: by all means, please be sure that you hit the follow button on whatever app

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Kevin Lowe: you're listening, because coming up in the next month,

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Kevin Lowe: which is October 2025.

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Kevin Lowe: The podcast has some of the best interviews that I've ever released here on the podcast.

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Kevin Lowe: They're emotional. They're heart-centered.

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Kevin Lowe: They're the kind of interviews that are going to leave you a different person after you hear them.

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Kevin Lowe: I've stacked the month full, Well, because there's a reason.

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Kevin Lowe: The reason is because the month of October, it's meaningful to me.

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Kevin Lowe: And I'll get to that inside of our next episode once we kick off the month-long series.

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Kevin Lowe: But I just want to be sure that you know that the best way that you can be sure

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Kevin Lowe: that you don't miss an episode is that you hit that little follow button up

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Kevin Lowe: at the top of your podcast app.

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Kevin Lowe: That way, it notifies you every Tuesday morning when a new episode is released.

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Kevin Lowe: So my friend, this is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration. I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

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Kevin Lowe: And my friend, I hope you enjoy today's episode. Yeah, I got Grit,

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Kevin Lowe: Grace, and Inspiration.

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Podcast Intro: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind

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Kevin Lowe: So here's what got me thinking about this whole idea of comparison.

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Kevin Lowe: And more so, how can we begin to view comparison differently?

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Kevin Lowe: It's because at the time that I'm recording today's episode,

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Kevin Lowe: I'm one day away from my birthday.

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Kevin Lowe: I'm turning 39 years old.

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Kevin Lowe: And yes, my friend, you know what that means. I'm a year away from turning 40.

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Kevin Lowe: And there's nothing that gets us thinking about the big picture of life,

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Kevin Lowe: comparing our lives to others more than a birthday.

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Kevin Lowe: You know, when we're kids, birthdays are nothing but balloons,

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Kevin Lowe: birthday parties, having fun.

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Kevin Lowe: As we grow older, they begin to take a whole new dynamic. Yeah,

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Kevin Lowe: maybe we like to celebrate, but in our alone time, at 3 a.m.

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Kevin Lowe: In the morning, you can't help but start to think about your life,

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Kevin Lowe: where you're at, what goals you haven't achieved, what plans didn't work out,

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Kevin Lowe: and how your life looks to everyone else.

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Kevin Lowe: And so, of course, you just go ahead and twist the knife a little deeper as

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Kevin Lowe: you're jabbing yourself in the eye because you go on Facebook,

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Kevin Lowe: you go on Instagram, and you start scrolling.

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Kevin Lowe: And you start comparing your life to everyone else's highlight reel.

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Kevin Lowe: You know it's not true. You know it's not something you should do.

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Kevin Lowe: But we do it anyways. We start doom scrolling, scroll after scroll,

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Kevin Lowe: comparing our life to everyone else's.

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Kevin Lowe: Why did they have it all work out? Why do they have it so good?

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Kevin Lowe: And why am I here? What is wrong with me?

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Kevin Lowe: Why am I almost 40 years old and I'm at this point in my life?

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Kevin Lowe: And yet people I went to school with, they're at this whole other point in their life.

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Kevin Lowe: Comparison. It can be the thief of joy.

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Kevin Lowe: Unless we flip the script and we begin to use it to our advantage.

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Kevin Lowe: So here's the shift that we have to start to make. It has to be a conscious

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Kevin Lowe: shift. It has to be something that we do with intention.

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Kevin Lowe: So when you catch yourself in that state of mind where you're beginning to compare

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Kevin Lowe: yourself to others, I want you to instead flip comparison upside down.

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Kevin Lowe: Because I'm about to show you the cheat code, the shortcut to have you improving

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Kevin Lowe: your own life by using comparison, but in a positive way.

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Kevin Lowe: Because what I want you to realize is what I'm about to tell you is going to

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Kevin Lowe: prove that comparison doesn't have to be the bad guy.

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Kevin Lowe: It can be one of your biggest motivators for success.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, we've all just been trained to look at comparison in the wrong direction.

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Kevin Lowe: Or maybe more specifically, we're looking at the wrong place for comparison.

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Kevin Lowe: We're looking next to us instead of behind us. We're looking at everyone else instead of at ourself.

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Kevin Lowe: The three different ways that I want you to begin to use comparison for your

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Kevin Lowe: good start with number one is that I want you to begin to compare backwards.

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Kevin Lowe: So the next time that you're in that state of mind and you're beginning to beat

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Kevin Lowe: yourself up, you're beginning to compare yourself to others.

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Kevin Lowe: You know, we all are in our own race. We're all in our own life.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, we're doing life together, but life looks different for every single one of us.

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Kevin Lowe: Each one of us are writing our own book, our own story of life.

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Kevin Lowe: And so instead of comparing your book to someone else's, I want you to compare

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Kevin Lowe: where you are today to where you were yesterday, to where you were last week,

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Kevin Lowe: last month, 10 years ago.

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Kevin Lowe: When you do that, you can begin to ask yourself, compared to where I was then,

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Kevin Lowe: how far have I come? How have I advanced?

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Kevin Lowe: What have I gone through and yet I've overcome? Probably a lot.

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Kevin Lowe: And so chances are you've made progress that you've not even taken the time

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Kevin Lowe: to give yourself credit for.

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Kevin Lowe: Because you've been comparing your story to someone else's.

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Kevin Lowe: Instead, just look backwards. Look back a day, a week, a month,

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Kevin Lowe: a year, a decade, and see how far you've come.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, maybe, just maybe, you're not happy with the progress.

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Kevin Lowe: Well, I'll tell you one of two things. Either that's your motivation that you need to do more.

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Kevin Lowe: Or maybe it's time to give yourself a little bit of grace, give yourself a break

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Kevin Lowe: and realize, yeah, maybe I didn't achieve all those goals and dreams I had in

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Kevin Lowe: the past 10 years. But what have I been through?

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Kevin Lowe: What have I overcome? Because if you're like me, life isn't easy.

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Kevin Lowe: There's health challenges. There's financial difficulties. There's family drama.

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Kevin Lowe: There's all this stuff that we deal with that we tend to blow off.

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Kevin Lowe: We tend to not think about when we're looking back.

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Kevin Lowe: But sometimes we have to let ourselves really dig deep and pull out the stuff

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Kevin Lowe: that maybe we'd rather forget about.

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Kevin Lowe: But it's a part of us. It's a part of our story. And my friend,

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Kevin Lowe: it's all a reason of why you are where you are today, for better or worse.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, the second way, second direction I want you to compare is I want you to compare upwards.

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Kevin Lowe: If there is somebody ahead of you that you admire,

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Kevin Lowe: maybe that you're a little jealous of, instead of resenting them,

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Kevin Lowe: why not use their success as a source of motivation, a source of inspiration?

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Kevin Lowe: Look at what they've done. Look at their level of success and study it.

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Kevin Lowe: See if you can copy it. See if you can achieve what they've been able to achieve.

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Kevin Lowe: There's nothing wrong with that. Because comparison, when used right,

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Kevin Lowe: when used from this positive lens, it can raise your ceiling rather than shrinking your confidence.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, the third direction I want you to begin comparing is inward.

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Kevin Lowe: This could be the most important way that I want you to begin to use comparison

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Kevin Lowe: out of any that I mentioned.

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Kevin Lowe: Because whatever you're thinking about in the moment, I want you to really think

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Kevin Lowe: and dig deep and get true with yourself.

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Kevin Lowe: Does this really even matter? Does it truly align with who I am or what I want?

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Kevin Lowe: Or am I just stuck in this comparison trap of looking at what everybody else has?

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Kevin Lowe: Do you really and truly want their life? Do you really and truly want to have

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Kevin Lowe: that person's life that you think is so great?

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Kevin Lowe: From the outside, yeah, maybe at first it seems flashy and glamorous,

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Kevin Lowe: but do you really want what they have?

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Kevin Lowe: Or what you already have, what you're working on, say it may be what's maybe more true to you.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, not to make you too dizzy, but when you can begin to use these three strategies

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Kevin Lowe: by comparing backward, upward, and inward,

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Kevin Lowe: you can begin to flip the script on comparison by turning comparison from a

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Kevin Lowe: negative thing into a positive thing.

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Kevin Lowe: So what I want you to do this next week is when comparison begins to creep into

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Kevin Lowe: your mind, I want you to try this simple exercise.

00:10:08.733 --> 00:10:15.053

Kevin Lowe: I want you to compare backward. I want you to write down one way in which you're

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Kevin Lowe: further ahead, that you've improved personally, professionally,

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Kevin Lowe: that somehow you've moved the needle forward in some aspect of your life from

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Kevin Lowe: where you were a year ago, from where you were 10 years ago.

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Kevin Lowe: Or if it's a person that you look at and you wish you could be like them,

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Kevin Lowe: you wish that you had their success, but why don't you instead write down one

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Kevin Lowe: thing that you could learn from them, that you could copy that they're doing?

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Kevin Lowe: That's by you looking upward, comparing upward.

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Kevin Lowe: And then, of course, the third question that you could ask yourself is by looking

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Kevin Lowe: inward. Is what I am trying to compare to, the thing that I want,

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Kevin Lowe: is it really true to who I am?

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Kevin Lowe: Does it really matter? Do I really and truly want that?

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Kevin Lowe: Or do I just think so in the moment? Is it my emotions leading the way?

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Kevin Lowe: If you can begin to train your mind to ask yourself these type of questions,

00:11:19.053 --> 00:11:24.973

Kevin Lowe: when comparison starts to try to rob you of joy, my friend, you're going to

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Kevin Lowe: find yourself enlightened.

00:11:26.453 --> 00:11:30.713

Kevin Lowe: You're going to find yourself with a whole new positive outlook on life.

00:11:30.833 --> 00:11:36.653

Kevin Lowe: Because every time that we can find a little way to switch the negative into

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Kevin Lowe: a positive, my friend, that is a positive impact on our life.

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Kevin Lowe: It might seem insignificant. It might seem so small.

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Kevin Lowe: But my friend, I'm here to tell you, it matters a lot.

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Kevin Lowe: And to end today's episode, I want you to be reminded that you are not behind.

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Kevin Lowe: You are right where you are meant to be.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, trust me, I get it.

00:12:02.253 --> 00:12:07.913

Kevin Lowe: That's easier said than believed because sometimes we want things to happen.

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Kevin Lowe: We've been chugging away. We've been trying.

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Kevin Lowe: And it seems like we're just on this never-ending treadmill. I get it.

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Kevin Lowe: But I promise you that your time is coming.

00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:22.600

Kevin Lowe: We never know what tomorrow will bring.

00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.500

Kevin Lowe: All we can do is focus on today. We can focus on being our best, doing our best.

00:12:28.780 --> 00:12:33.840

Kevin Lowe: We can focus on comparing the right things, not the wrong things.

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Kevin Lowe: To stop looking around, to stop looking on Facebook and Instagram.

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Kevin Lowe: Instead, start looking at ourselves.

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Kevin Lowe: Comparing us to us.

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Kevin Lowe: That's the only person I ever want you to compare yourself to.

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Kevin Lowe: So my friend, remember, starting today, comparison, it's perfect as long as

00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:59.300

Kevin Lowe: you use it the right way by comparing backward, upward, and inward.

00:12:59.900 --> 00:13:05.960

Kevin Lowe: Use those three ways of comparison, and my friend, you are going to be ahead in life.

00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:14.200

Kevin Lowe: And we've just flipped the script on what used to be the thief of joy and now

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Kevin Lowe: turned it into your secret weapon for your own personal growth and development.

00:13:18.920 --> 00:13:24.760

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. I hope today's episode makes you think

00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:26.040

Kevin Lowe: about things a little differently.

00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:29.440

Kevin Lowe: I hope maybe it sparks an idea inside of you.

00:13:29.880 --> 00:13:34.440

Kevin Lowe: And ultimately, I hope that it helps you in some way, shape,

00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:36.320

Kevin Lowe: or form. That's why I'm here.

00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.920

Kevin Lowe: That's why I do what I do, is I just want to be a help to you.

00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:46.100

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, until next episode, get out there and enjoy this beautiful day.

00:13:46.800 --> 00:13:50.900

Kevin Lowe: And remember, you're more awesome than you give yourself credit for.

00:13:51.300 --> 00:13:55.500

Kevin Lowe: So just get out there and keep living life, doing what you can.

00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:59.880

Kevin Lowe: Realize every day is a gift. So take advantage of it.

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Podcast Outro: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind...