We have been told our whole lives that being jealous is a bad thing, and being envious of others can make you bitter and spiteful. While, in some circumstances this can be true, jealousy can be a real eye opener and do some good in your life. With the advent of social media and reality television, unrealistic lifestyles are now seen as the norm and luxurious flashy lifestyles are constantly shown on our screens. Jealousy can be a good thing if taken with a grain of salt, and I’ll tell you why.
By identifying what we’re jealous of we can clearly see what we want for ourselves. You can easily identify things that could potentially make you feel fulfilled in ways you hadn’t explored previously. You can let that jealousy fuel your motivation and into action. This can help you lead to a positive outcome. If you use jealousy as a motivator as opposed to fuel for anger you can make great strides ahead in your career and your personal relationships because, chances are, what you’re jealous of isn’t entirely unattainable! Seeing someone driving a nice new car can make you jealous, but that jealousy can motivate you to reevaluate your budgeting, and possibly open up some room in your savings for a gift in the name of self care. Or perhaps help you work a little harder to gain that item that you’re jealous of.
Also, evaluate the people and things you’re jealous of and do some digging. Their lives may not be as perfect as they appear in an instagram feed, and maybe some of the difficulties they’ve gone through can inspire you. Take some time to assess your reality at the moment, and see if it really needs any changing (maybe it’s not actually reality). Jealousy is natural but not always necessary. It’s important to appreciate what you have and what you’ve worked so hard to achieve, but admiring others and what they have can serve as an excellent motivator and bring your desires into the light.
As long as your jealousy isn’t all-consuming, it’s not always a bad thing, don’t let it freeze you. Being envious is natural and a part of human nature, but it’s important to use those emotions to create something positive and something to work towards, or try and take a step back and look at the full picture, because sometimes, things aren’t as always as they seem.