third grade advice

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Laura Dern said that the best advice she ever received was from a third grade teacher who told her to, "Keep your eyes on your own paper." 

I don't know why reading that really stuck years after I heard the same thing plenty of times in elementary school, but it stuck.

Although I'm sure it has always been human nature, I think it's easier than ever these days to compare ourselves to others. Sometimes I catch myself thinking - wait a second, I'm 25 years old! Doesn't that mean we should have a house by now? Where are our children? Where is my condo in Hawaii? Why doesn't my hair look like that? Why can't we vacation every other weekend? (okay, I'm exaggerating) but you get the point. We all do it. And we all get why not to do it.

But that's why I especially like the way Laura Dern phrased it, because we've all heard that too: "Keep your eyes on your own paper." When I look back at my own life, or in this case, "at my own paper" and I see all that I've done and learned and am continually trying to achieve, it's not half bad. In fact, it's pretty great. I consider myself lucky and (donthatemeforsayingthis) blessed - (yes, I know blessed is the most over-used word in the world of blogging, but I don't have my thesaurus on hand).

I'm a big believer in the power of gratitude and counting your blessings and so on, but I like the idea of "keeping your eyes on your own paper" a lot too. SO that's it. TGIF.