PEDESTALS

The person excelling in the areas you struggle is no better than you and there will always be people struggling in the areas you excel. The person doing good things in noticeable ways is no better than the one doing good things anonymously or behind the scenes and vice versa. The people who seem to have things pretty well together and are happy are often facing difficult circumstances that aren't up for public consumption and those whose lives seems a little unkempt are often content and emotionally healthy.

It doesn't matter if it's homeschooling, raising children with special needs, running marathons, serving people in poverty-stricken countries, cooking everything from scratch while accommodating a list of allergies, working full-time and volunteering for various organizations after hours, accomplishing feats of physical strength, creating works of art, believing and saying positive things in the midst of negative circumstances, or anything else. People are not amazing simply because they're doing something you aren't. You are not amazing simply because you're doing something that other people aren't. 

Go ahead and respect a particular quality in a person, support their cause, praise their accomplishment, and be intrigued by what they're doing. But remember they're just regular human beings simply doing the thing that's been placed in front of them, not everything in their life is sunshine and roses, and the thing you admire in their life may be coming at a high price for them and/or their loved ones. Be excited about your own accomplishments and confident about your choices. But remember that being prideful eventually leads to painful ways of being humbled, the fact your life is going well in a particular area doesn't necessarily mean it's the only or best way to do things, and that failures are just as sure to come as successes.

Putting someone else on a pedestal is just setting them up for failure and yourself for disappointment because they will do something wrong. Putting yourself on a pedestal, whether out of your own arrogance or as a response to positive feedback from others, is a surefire way to damage relationships because you're not better than other people. Pedestals are dangerous places, both for those who are on them and those who put them there. Avoid them.