You can feel the envy begin to take over this woman’s life. She knows it, but rather than look at the plank in her eye; she prescribes an antidote to the sliver in her neighbor’s eye: change your attitude.
Do you see the difference in these perspectives? The have-nots are working multiple jobs, sharing a trailer with other families, and studying how to become wealthy. The millionaires, on the other hand, are discontent and resent those with more money; or something else that they lack.
Comparison is the thief of joy, and envy is its master.
In 2022 we don’t murder each other because of envy, but we do compare, which is its own form of murder; the murder of oneself.
I know this personally because envy was a close companion of mine for many years. When I believed I was a victim, I envied others. With a dad in prison, I regularly made that excuse with the voice in my head. Got the girl to go on a date? It must be nice to have your daddy buy you a nice car. Got an A on the test? It must be nice not having to work to pay for school. To most things that didn’t go well in my life, I didn’t look to what was the truth of the situation; I was lazy in the form of comparison.
But everything changed when I woke up to the fact that it was victimhood controlling my life, and I was calling it fate.
I woke up, and I became aware, and everything changed for me.
I no longer saw envy as something to fix in myself, but rather I saw it as a natural emotion that can lead to positive outcomes if channeled correctly.
It can be used to motivate oneself to work hard and achieve desired goals.
Or
It can become your master.
So what should we do about envy as you enter 2023 with a list of items you would like to accomplish next year? Well, dear reader, my hope is that this essay has stirred up in you a couple of items that you need to be aware of that are causing you to covet what other people have. So that you can adjust your mindset to grow into what you are called to be, not what someone else has become.
The key to managing envy is recognizing it and being mindful of its power. We must remember that our worth is determined not by what we have but by who we are. We can use envy as a source of motivation to reach our goals, but we must be careful to avoid letting it control us.
Being aware of your envy means you are awake. And waking up is the first and hardest step on the journey. The 2nd step is to recognize that this is part of your personality and that you should have strong boundaries instead of trying to “fix” it. You’ve been given a string of truth; now pull with all you have.
So my question to you, dear reader, as you head into 2023 with glorious goals dancing in your head, is this: Are your goals designed to help you get to the next level of growth that is uniquely yours, or are you simply copy and pasting a cheap imitation that you saw on a billboard?
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