In our competitive environment today, it’s very easy to become envious of others’ successes. In the startup field, there are always a few phenomenal individuals who bloom quickly in their respective industries. I know of one that produced an app that quickly gained 20 million users, and another that won several outstanding business awards and garnered lots of attention from the media.
Another small startup quickly grew to have 200 employees.When a colleague outperforms you, a friend has a bustling social life, or when someone has a seemingly perfect relationship, it is easy to turn to resentment.1 Most of the time, we don’t admit to these feelings, but the green-eyed monster lurks beneath the surface.
Whether or not we’d like to admit it, we’ve all felt jealous of someone else in the past.
Competitive and jealous feelings are an adaptive strategy. Humans are naturally inclined to compare to others because it was essential to outperform others in order to survive.2
While it seems natural to become envious or resentful of others, the feeling does more harm than good.
Envy Costs Your Entire Mind
Envy interferes with people’s ability to think and act. Instead of working on attaining a high level of success, it focuses a person’s energy on what they lack.3An envious person is blind to their own progress since their only aim is to have what someone else already has. Without benchmarks for their progress, envious individuals quickly lose their motivation altogether.
Those who worry about the final outcomes that others experience don’t think about the journey that their competitors had to take to reach that level of success.
4Envious people are blind to their own strengths, and they’re unable to see the weaknesses of rivals.If you spend your whole life envying others because you think they are more efficient, more easily promoted, or better at solving problems, you’ll never become better. A person who wastes time worrying about others’ successes will not be able to see his or her own potential. Even when the envious person succeeds, he or she will likely still be so focused on the other person that there is little cause for celebration. The vicious cycle continues, and the envious individual never feels satisfied.
The reality is that there will always be someone smarter, better, or stronger. Enviousness condemns people to lead lives in which they…
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