Is Keeping Up With ‘The Joneses’ A Bad Thing?

I believe it’s who your ‘Joneses’ are, and what your motivation for keeping up with them is.

My entire life seems to have been spent comparing myself to others, from the ‘cool’ girls at school, through to people getting promoted around me at work, to seeing the successes of my friends and family manifest for them.

I've come to realise that this is because I didn't have any real goals or dreams for myself, so I relied on tagging along on other peoples. Or became envious when they had or did cool things, when I of course could have had or done those cool things if I’d made the same choices as them in many cases.

Now my focus has shifted more towards identifying what’s important to me, and what my dreams and goals are, I see things differently. Rather than envy those who have done and achieved great things in their life, I look and ask them how they did it, and if it’s something I can replicate in my own life, to pursue my own goals and dreams then I can and do!

I have quite a broad range of friends, all of whom I consider successful, as they are living their lives the way they want to. It’s not all about money, but having it, (or not having debt more importantly) does play a part in each. It’s the freedom to make choices for yourself that really stands out, not the level of income/money itself.

I've got a few examples that come to mind, so I’ll be looking at each of these people in more detail and writing separate posts about them (names changed of course) over the coming weeks.

• Part 1: The Car Guy
• Part 2: The Investors

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