Comparisons are how we gauge our progress. For long-term happiness, I only compare myself to myself, and compare backwards to who I used to be, not forwards to who I want to become.

When looking at others or my future self, I look for inspiration, not comparison. (And if you wonder how to stop the comparisons, I remind myself that I don't know their full situation so I'd be comparing apples and oranges, which is pointless.) For example, with the Medium rewards, instead of comparison, wondering why other people who'd been writing less long than me got them, I looked for inspiration, to figure out what targets to reach and how to reach them.