Comparanoia®
/kəmˌperəˈnoiə/
noun
The desire to be like or UNlike others.
The UNresourceful beliefs, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and/or actions that come as the consequence of an incident or as the result of not meeting or exceeding a goal, standard, benchmark, or expectation.
To believe one is UNique.
Researched and developed by Davide Di Giorgio, Comparanoia® is a part of his signature process to UNcover, UNravel, and UNleash powerful people, messages, stories, movements, and legacies.
Creating UNprecedented results for UNcommon people!
“Comparanoia® shows up in just as many costumes and disguises as my kindergarten girlfriends would have me try on.”
I’ve spent my life struggling with, studying, and overcoming what I’ve come to call Comparanoia® and now, I’m on a mission to empower every person, especially young people, to understand and overcome it.
Why? The effects of Comparanoia® caused me to nearly take my own life as a young adult and later again as an adult. It has kept me from stepping into my full potential and sharing myself and my gifts fully with others and the world.
Through multiple careers in entertainment, education, travel, and personal development, I have dedicated over 20 years of my adult life to researching, understanding, and unpacking this phenomenon.
Especially with the rise of mass and social media, Comparanoia® has, in some cases, become insidious; that is, you wouldn’t even know it’s happening and might get stuck in an UNending, destructive cycle.
How does Comparanoia® show up for you?
My work and research on Comparanoia® was released to the world in my TED talk on
September 28, 2019 | TEDx Colorado Springs
September 28, 2019 | TEDx Colorado Springs
Davide Di Giorgio
“Compare less, celebrate more!”
It’s time.
Davide’s #1
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BEING UNAPOLOGETIC
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“The problem isn’t a fear of failure, a lack of skills, or even a lack of confidence;
the problem is Comparanoia®!”
The Cycle of Comparanoia®
Incident
The Cycle of Comparanoia® begins with an incident.
The incident may or may not involve another party.
It could be a conversation, an argument, or a seemingly benign comment or text message.
It can happen while scrolling through social media posts, watching a movie, or flipping through a magazine.
The incident will challenge or put into question a personal belief, goal, standard, benchmark, or expectation or have some connection to a desire to be like or UNlike anyone or anything else.
This triggers a belief.
Beliefs
The belief, in it of itself, is neither good nor bad. It is simply what you believe to be true.
Beliefs can be about:
what is right or wrong
what you know or don’t know
what you need to do for yourself or others
your self-worth
your self-image
your expectations
In his book, ‘Motivation for Learning and Performance’ Dr. Bobby Hoffman identifies 5 categories of beliefs: control, competency, value, goal orientation, and epistemology.
Your belief will lead to a series of thoughts which may be either resourceful or UNresourceful.
Resourceful vs UNresourceful
Resourceful: having the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.
UNresourceful: not having the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.
You are stuck in the Cycle of Comparanoia® when you are having trouble getting past or overcoming
Thoughts
These UNresourceful thoughts are ideas or opinions that are produced by thinking, or may occur suddenly in the mind.
Some examples of UNresourceful thoughts are:
I’m not good enough
I’m UNworthy or UNloved
I’m UNacceptable
The thoughts are the self-talk and analysis that are rooted in your UNresourceful beliefs.
UNresourceful thoughts compound the inability to overcome the incident or situation.
These thoughts result in UNresourceful feelings
Feelings
Including:
confusion
disgust
envy
fear
sadness
Which may cause feelings of depression or anxiety.
The feelings may alter behaviors.
Behaviors
Some examples include becoming:
UNdisciplined, careless, UNreliable
UNeasy, anxious
deceitful, inconsiderate
UNstable, quickly irritated
rigid and UNwilling to change your outlook
reticent, guarded, reserved
Comparanoia® is at work when these behaviors amplify the inciting belief, and keep you stuck and UNable to overcome or solve the issue (or even to see that there is an issue).
These UNresourceful behaviors may ultimately lead to UNprecedented actions.
Actions
These may include:
withdrawal
acts of aggression (verbal, physical, or emotional)
self-harm
violence
In my own experience and in my observation of thousands of people, the Cycle of Comparanoia®:
shows up the same across multiple ages, races, and cultures
shows up the same regardless of job, vocation, or career
does not always lead to UNprecedented actions.
Sometimes:
the incident will only trigger beliefs with no additional, measurable effects
the progression from incident to behaviors or actions can seem to happen in an instant.
Comparanoia® also shows up as:
the belief that you are UNique or UNlike anyone else.
I started to recognize Comparanoia® especially in the high school classroom, where the behaviors of young people were tied to their need to be like or UNlike others, or tied to their perceived goals, standards, benchmarks, or expectations. Comparanoia® also shows up as the belief that we are UNique, and in believing so, we risk becoming detached, isolated, and feeling anxious, and depressed.
“The problem is Comparanoia®. The antidote is celebration!”
Who will you choose to be?
A victim of Comparanoia® OR someone who chooses to celebrate the best of themselves?
“The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.”
Let’s redefine celebration to include more options!
What do you say?
Are you ready to Compare less…CELEBRATE MORE?
1, 2, 3, Celebrate!
What Happens When You UNleash Your Story?
I’ve had this theory for a long time that learning how to express yourself, especially through story, UNlocks something inside of us that spills over into other areas of our lives.
It’s something I’ve tested in multiple ways for many years and with thousands of people, especially young people.
Let me take you on a journey of evolution so you understand the origin of this work.
I put my theory into a book, Being UNapologetic, which then became my brand.
While many people love the idea of living their life UNapologetically, there is one thing that is consistently in the way. It’s what I’ve come to call (and subsequently trademarked) Comparanoia®.
I shared my lifelong work to understand and overcome this phenomenon in my TED Talk, Overcoming Comparanoia®. In that talk, I share what I believe is at the root of the issue and a very simple antidote.
It all started with story