Historically, human suffering was a direct result of external conditions. The primary struggles were for survival against tangible threats like starvation, predators, and environmental hardship. Today, many people live without these immediate threats, yet experience a different form of suffering. This distress is not caused by external reality, but is created internally through the mental process of social comparison.
Social comparison makes no sense when you consider hedonic adaptation. This is the observed human tendency to revert to a stable baseline level of contentment, regardless of positive or negative events (which is mostly not in your control). A person who acquires significant wealth or status experiences an initial increase in contentment. Though, this feeling is temporary and fleeting. They soon adapt to their new circumstances and their emotional state returns to its original baseline. The "happiness" that one might envy in another person is therefore not a permanent condition.
The existence of death functions as a final equalizer. All accumulated wealth, status, and competitive advantages are terminated at the end of an individual's life. Since this outcome is the same for every person, the lifelong pursuit of being "ahead" of others is an ultimately pointless activity.
The act of comparing oneself to others is also fundamentally illogical. For any single attribute (wealth, intelligence, physical appearance, or skill) it is a statistical certainty that another person exists who possesses that attribute to a greater degree. It is impossible to be superior to all other people in all respects. To engage in social comparison is to sabotage oneself with insatiable pursuits.
The only reasonable comparison for progress is one's own past self. Evaluating personal improvement over time is a useful and inspiring form of measurement.
Given that the perceived "happiness" of others is temporary (hedonic adaptation), that the end result for all people is the same (death), and that someone somewhere will always be better in some way, the emotions of jealousy and insecurity that come from social comparison are based on absurdly flawed ways of thinking. Suffering unnecessarily is an unintelligent and unproductive use of human consciousness.
Living fully isn’t a destination. It’s the continuous process of becoming. And that’s where the highest quality of life is found. Not in what happens to you, but in who you choose to be.
Read: The Foundation of Strong Character