Crabs in a Bucket Syndrome

Comparison has become human nature. I don't know if it has always been like this or not. Comparison can be used for good in certain aspects. However, people more and more everyday are using it as a way to gauge their success in life. When I say that I have truly become successful in life, it is because I am completely content with my life and where it is going. Instead of comparing my life, and more specifically the material things I have, to other people's lives, I measure my amount of happiness overall to gauge my success.

But there's alot of people out there who just don't seem to get it. They constantly want to compare themselves to others, be "one up" on everybody else, "keeping up with the Jones", so on and so forth. Some people are obsessed with it... and I think that's sad. Most will never realize that no matter how hard they try, none of that will ever really make them happy.

And since humans are in a constant state of comparison, it brings me to the subject matter at hand, what I like to call... The "crabs in a bucket" syndrome. I'm sure some of you can see where I am going with this. Have you ever seen crabs in a bucket? There are a few that sit in there and don't move around much because they are blindly content with where they are. Then there are some crabs that realize the prison that they are in and attempt to free themselves by trying to crawl out of that bucket. THEN... you have those crabs that see the ones trying to escape and they pull them back down into the bucket.

It's almost no different with people in today's society. Those of us who see this "prison" that we are in, work hard to free ourselves from it. We strive to create a life where we are truly happy, without any regard for the "rules" that society has set forth.

Then you have those who have the syndrome. They try to tell you what is normal, how to live your life. But the most dominant trait of the syndrome is that they try to pull you back from being successful. They shun and discredit anything that you try to do out of the norm that might actually make you happy.