🧠Weekly MindSweep No. 184 | Manage Your Mind | Comparison
July 2025
Week 182: Curated Conversation: Comparison
Week 183: Mind Your Business: Comparison
*Week 184: Manage Your Mind: Comparison
Week 185: What’s On My Mind: Comparison
Let’s sweep the brain…
🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!
👉 Click here to Listen
In the MindSweep this week:
Curated Conversation with curated GIF’s & puns (for your entertainment).
Jamie’s Second Brain Corner: Links to references. Need a map? I’ve got you!
What’s I’m Reading - The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Collaborations with Terri Hamilton (Thursday) & Shannon Giordano and the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce
My face đź’ś and a link to schedule your free consultation.
🧠The Entrepreneur’s Brain on Comparison
Comparison Is Not a Compass
I was already five minutes late for a meeting with a client in a town I was unfamiliar with. (Which of course doesn’t include me being 15 minutes earlier than our planned meeting time.) The kind of late where you're sweating in weird places and you start questioning every life choice that led to this moment.
I, of course, had prepared the night before: filled my gas tank, pulled out a fresh notebook, and set the address in Waze. [1]
Waze is like a GPS with anxiety. It doesn't just give you directions; it offers a barrage of alternative routes, including faster ones, safer ones, less traffic, and even more scenic options. On this day, Waze offered me a new route. Then another. Then another. "Faster by 3 minutes." "Avoids construction." "Saves 2 minutes."
I kept switching. Left turn. U-turn. Backtrack. Side street. It felt like I was being productive, maybe even optimizing! I do love beating the expected ETA. (Just me? Weird.)
But then I looked up and realized I was now 15 minutes late. (so, on time) And I had passed the last turn to my destination.
That's when it hit me.
I wasn't navigating anymore. I was chasing.
I was so busy trying to follow what everyone else was doing that I'd completely disconnected from where I was supposed to be going.
That, my friends, is what comparison does to the creative brain.
Let’s sweep the brain…
🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!
👉 Click here to Listen
🧠The Creative, Neurodivergent Brain and the Pull of Comparison
For entrepreneurs, especially neurodivergent creatives and those with unique executive functioning styles, comparison often feels like necessary calibration. You scroll to see what others are doing, check out competitors, and size up someone else's launch, pricing, or success story. You want need to know where you stand.
But instead of giving you clarity, it gives you whiplash.
That's because comparison lights up the same parts of the brain as reward and threat detection. When you perceive yourself as behind, your brain doesn't just notice, it alarms.
And it happens fast.
🧠Why Our Brains Compare
Your brain is a meaning-making machine. When it's uncertain, it looks around to get its bearings. Enter: social comparison, a built-in system designed to help you evaluate yourself when there's no clear measuring stick. [2]
Ventral striatum & ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC): process reward and value. Like that tiny dopamine firework show your brain throws when someone compliments your newsletter or your post gets more than 11 likes.
Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) & anterior insula (AI): trigger when we perceive social threats, losses, or misalignment. Like when you see a competitor launch the exact thing you were "thinking about doing someday," and suddenly you're spiraling into an Instagram doom scroll.
Default Mode Network (DMN): spins stories in the background, often rooted in past experiences or assumptions. Like when you're making coffee and your brain decides to replay that one awkward client call from 2021, just for fun. [3]
Translation: Your brain literally lights up differently when you're comparing yourself up or down the ladder. [4]
Upward comparison (they're ahead of me) can feel like danger.
Downward comparison (I'm doing better than them) can offer a temporary hit of relief, but it's not always aligned with your goals.
For neurodivergent entrepreneurs, this process can be even more intense. With ADHD, emotional regulation and self-evaluation are already front-loaded with effort. Add a dopamine-seeking brain, sensitivity to perceived rejection, and time blindness?
That scroll through Instagram becomes a detour through your inner critic's favorite neighborhoods.
🧠Conscious vs. Unconscious Comparison
Most of our comparisons aren't even conscious choices; they are reflexive. They happen automatically, like glancing at the car next to you on the highway.
Studies show that we begin processing upward comparisons within 200 milliseconds, before we are even aware of it. That's your brain's fast-pass safety scanner doing its job.
But in today's information-rich world, it's over-firing. Constantly.
🧠For Creative Entrepreneurs: The Comparison Trap
As entrepreneurs, we often choose our competitors, who we follow, benchmark against, and secretly stalk on Instagram.
But, when comparison triggers the dACC and AI (such as pain, error detection, or loss), it shifts us from creation mode to protection mode. Instead of "What could I create?" the brain asks, "What am I missing?"
And for those of us with ADHD? This can feel existential. The prefrontal cortex (the CEO of the brain) already struggles with regulation.
Add in the emotional hit from upward comparison, and it can derail an entire day.
🧠A Better Compass: From Comparison to Calibration
Instead of asking, "Am I better than them?" What if we asked, "What can I learn from this?"
The brain's reward system lights up when we reframe comparison as a source of inspiration.
Especially when the target feels relatable, like the book writer selling from her couch, living in Canva chaos, and has a post-it avalanche on the daily, not the influencer with the lemon water, protein pancakes, and a minimalist office that somehow always stays spotless.
Your brain wants feedback, not a verdict.
Comparison is like updating your GPS every time someone else posts a win online. You keep rerouting, second-guessing your direction, and recalculating until you forget where you were going in the first place.
You’re comparing different coordinates, different priorities and experiencing the same endless reroute spiral.
🧠5 Practices to Catch Comparison and Choose Differently
You can train your brain to notice comparisons when they happen and reroute before you lose your way. Here are five neuroscience-backed, creative entrepreneur practices to help you manage your mind and stay on your own creative path.
1. Name the Narrative- "Ah, that's the 'They're doing better than me' story." Label the thought, don't live in it. This activates your prefrontal cortex, pulling you out of reflex mode and into a state of reflection.
Bonus tip: Add humor. Maybe try calling it "The Great Entrepreneurial Spinout" or "Episode 12 of My Comparison Saga."
2. Keep a Comparison Catch Log. Create a note in your phone called "Comparison
Catch Log." When you feel the sting:
Write what triggered it
What you felt
What did you make it mean
Then ask: Is this mine, or someone else's definition of success? This builds metacognitive awareness, strengthening your executive function like a muscle.
3. Use the 90-Second Rule. Feelings from comparison rise like a wave. Don't fight it, ride it. Set a timer. Breathe. Remind yourself:
"This is my brain doing a safety scan. I don't need to act on it."
Neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor teaches us that emotions last 90 seconds unless we loop them. That pause gives your brain time to re-center. [5]
4. Switch the Question. Instead of "Am I behind?" ask:
"What's my next right step?" "What matters to me?"
These questions re-engage your value-based reward system, shifting from external validation to internal motivation. A game-changer for creative entrepreneurs who struggle with prioritization. [6]
5. Reframe Comparison as Calibration. Not all comparisons are bad. It's data, not a diagnosis. Try asking:
"What inspires me about this?"
"What am I admiring?"
"How far have I come from where I started?"
When you use comparison to clarify your direction and not question your worth, you shift from judgment to discernment. [7]
🧠Bring It Back to the Road
Let's go back to the GPS.
When you're in the driver's seat of your business, especially as a creative entrepreneur, you already face enough detours: energy dips, idea avalanches, internal critics, and the occasional executive functioning pothole.
Comparison might feel like insight. But more often, it's just noise. Static from someone else's directions.
Your job is to:
Know your destination.
Check in with your coordinates.
Pause before taking every suggested turn.
Your brain is brilliant. Help it focus on your route, your milestones, and your values.
You've got the map, you're not late, you're a creative trailblazer.
My questions for you this week :
What’s something recent you admired in someone else that actually reflects a value you hold dear?
How do you know when you're off course, and what helps you come back to your own map?
✨ Want help recalibrating?
If this resonated and you're ready to quiet the noise and tune into your creative roadmap, I'd love to help.
đź“ŤBook a free chat to learn about the MindSweep Mapping Session at:
👉 www.chickbookcreative.com/mind-sweep
Let's map the next stretch together—with your brain, your strengths, and your own timing leading the way.
Schedule a Mapping Session to explore where comparison might be influencing your decisions, and uncover the facts, numbers, and vision that actually support your growth. [9]
Whether you're refining your offers, rethinking your pricing, or just craving more clarity, this session is designed to help you stop spinning and start making confident, aligned moves. Let's mind your business—together.
Already know where you need to work on your business?
Book a free consultation to learn how I can support you and your business.
Are you a like-hearted entrepreneur ready for support? Let's connect.
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Jamie’s Second Brain Corner:
[x] Did someone say MindSweep MAP?! Learn more about my Personalized MindSweep Mapping Process
MONDAY: 8 am - Curated Conversation - Zoom
Changing the world, one Monday Morning at a time. Learn more + Sign Up for a Monday morning reminder!
What I’m reading
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
Author: Sy Montgomery
A very special thank you to Judith Lytel P.A., Psy.D. from MetroWest Neurofeedback for this recommendation!
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food.
Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” (Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.
Find it where you browse for books.
Collaborations!
Join us Friday, August 1st , at the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce for this two-hour interactive business community experience.
We'll discuss ways to cultivate business through Sales, Marketing, and Communication methods that support relationship building, showing up authentically, and connecting deeper with colleagues and the people you serve.
9-11 am - Open discussion, community support, brainstorming ideas
Join me in meeting business owners in our community. You'll leave with new tools to help you make connections and build your business!
Note: because of the 4th of July holiday we’ll meet the 2nd Friday!
Free; Registration is required: REGISTRATION.
Mindful Connections
Connecting like-hearted entrepreneurs to build relationships, offering support, understanding their passions, and sharing their names in rooms of opportunity.
Join us Thursdays, 12-1 pm EST.
12:00 - Take 5—a guided meditation with Terri Hamilton of Positively Terri to ground your week with peace and focus.
12:05-1 pm Round-table Share
Who you are
The gifts you bring to the world
Who you serve
The answer to a Curated question to spark conversation.
FYI: We will NOT meet Thursday, 06/26/2025
If you found this on the web, sign up to join us!
In other news…
Feeling #FOMO about Curated Conversations? Join us!
