When we are college students, we worship the glories of others.

Maybe you’re the freshman art student who sits next to the girl whose drawing abilities surpass yours as exhibited through her magnificent doodles in her notepad.

Maybe you’re the yoga beginner secretly wishing to bend your body in the ways the experts sitting at the front can.

Maybe you’re the single senior who watches all his friends give a ring by spring.

Maybe you’re the student who cannot afford Study Abroad; the one who watches other students come back and tell amazing stories of their newfound knowledge and enhanced spirituality.

Maybe you’re the struggling author who watches people younger than you publish their first novels.

Maybe it hurts you knowing you cannot experience what your peers have.

It’s okay to feel hurt.

But it’s not okay to feel hopeless.

Our minds tell us that we all need to live amazing lives and achieve great things at a young age. We tell ourselves we have to be as good at as this person or go to as many places as that person.

This is detrimental to ourselves, especially when circumstances beyond our control keep us from achieving the same things as our friends.

This keeps us away from the present and from achieving our own happiness.

The truth is that we can be happy with what we have and not focus on what others have. It’s a difficult concept, but it’s true.

Happiness for ourselves is not a destination. It has been in our control all along.

Here are a few ways to take that control:

Start with taking one moment of quiet to yourself each day. Think of the successes so far in your life.

Find peace in knowing that you don’t have what you want now, but also know that life gets better if we choose for it to be.

Do what you love for just 20 minutes a day. Draw, write, do yoga.

Exercise. It helps with anxiety.

The more we focus on ourselves, the less we are intimidated by what our friends are doing.