Sounds dramatic, but it’s true. There are days when I think I’m winning at life — great family, good job, homeowner, two cars, 2.4 children… well, five actually. Not 2.5 — actually five children. My health (albeit some things are starting to break). What’s there to feel bad about? I’ve made it, haven’t I?

Well, yeah. I suppose I have — to a point.

The thing is, there’s a natural human desire to always want more, to do better, to be better. Like everyone else, I have goals, ambitions, and dreams for the future. Unfortunately, time seems to be going by at a rate of knots like never before. And finding the time to tick off all these goals feels impossible.

It’s easy — but extremely dangerous — to compare yourself to others and think negatively about yourself. Your achievements, where you are in life, and your personal possessions will always look inferior to someone else’s — on the face of it — if that’s your barometer of success. We all know people only show or tell you what they want you to see. But if everyone does it, it’s easy to fall into a perpetual doom loop of feeling like an underachiever.

These are the times when it’s hard to see how far you’ve actually come in your own life. If you always measure yourself against someone else’s “public profile,” you don’t have to try too hard to make yourself look inferior.

I am, for good or bad, an ambitious person and need to feel like I’m moving forward in all aspects of life. When life’s undercurrent is holding you back and not allowing you to get to shore, it can be overwhelming.

That feeling of not being where you think you should be — or where you think you deserve to be — can make you want to reach for the life jacket and hope someone comes to your rescue.

But maybe the rescue doesn’t come from someone else. Maybe it starts with realising that treading water is still surviving — and sometimes, that’s more than enough until the tide turns.