Nowadays, I don't check out other people's work like I used to, but it's funny that when I do, the experience just disrupts me so much. I can't even seem to remember what I wanted to say in the first place, it's almost as if I've forgotten. And because of comparing myself and what I'm doing to the seemingly perfect work of others, my own thoughts and ideas become less significant or creative, that is until I jump back to original work.
Healthy comparison is when you draw inspiration from others to motivate you to do yours better. But if it's make yours look worthless in your eyes and taking the motivation and joy of your own work away it's obviously not good.
When you're looking at other people's completed work, you're looking at the finished clean version. All of the messed up drafts that lead there are gone forever. Because of that sense of clean, you expect your own work to also be completed, but that's just not possible. If your work doesn't look clean and tidy instantly, you'll likely find yourself stuck.
For me, I take fewer chances and have more self doubt and second guessing with my work when I'm watching and comparing it with someone else's work. I might ask myself questions, like is my work worthy, is it creative, am I doing it wrongly? All those questions just because of unhealthy comparison.
Just know that those types of inquiries aren't going to help anybody create anything of substance.
What someone else is producing and publishing is different from your work. It should be. Everybody's coming from different places and different perspectives, but when you're scrolling and flipping through the different channels of social media, it's easy to forget this reality check.
I spend a lot of time working on my own projects instead of judging my present day work against someone else's. I understand that this is completely unfair. And it feels so much more legitimate when I do this as opposed to working for someone else because but trying to meet their standards you're indirectly working for them and no longer for you.
But still, even though I try not to listen to all of the distractions, there are times when I cannot do it. That's why I'm learning to let my mind filter out negative comparison. I'll get inspiration but I won't be sad because someone did it better or different than I did