they only consider the people that are more successful than them in their self-evaluation We look up, never down. I figured this out while I was driving down

they only consider the people that are more successful than them in their self-evaluation We look up, never down. I figured this out while I was driving down the street next to the downtown trail where I run, and I tried to point out to my passenger how going for a run is always a great reminder that I'm a slow, fat, horrible slob. I say "tried" because at the same time I was saying it, I realized it wasn't true, and I couldn't even twist it in a way that reflected the truth. The only truth in it is that when I go running, everyone on the trail who is slower or fatter than me is invisible. I noticed instances of this much earlier in life, but I didn't generalize. When I was a little kid playing Little League, I only compared myself against better players, so I was always the worst. When I was in college, I lamented to an old friend of mine that no girls had liked me in high school. He mentioned a few names, asked what about them, and I was irritated with him: What do those girls have to do with anything? The ones who mattered didn't like me. I've always been criticized by my parents, my teachers, and my therapist for being too harsh on myself, but looking upwards seems more optimistic. I don't want to look downwards. It's scary. Plus, every mountain biker knows that your bike goes where you look, so you look at the gaps between obstacles, never at the obstacles themselves.