Good envy is when you admire someone and their success inspires you to work harder and be more like them. It brings you closer to achieving your goals. The rival becomes a motivator and fuels your ambition.
Join Jordan and Gabe for this deep dive into the lessons we can learn when we enlist envy as a teacher rather than a bitter reminder of what we don't have.
What We Discuss:
Merriam-Webster defines envy as "painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage."
Envy is rooted in evolutionary psychology as an aid to our survival, but modern life amplifies and distorts it into an overwhelming compulsion that can hurt more than help.
When envy crops up in our lives, it often contains two different desires within it: a desire for the thing we wish we had, and a desire to "beat" the person who has it.
Envy could be about wanting something we don’t have, or it could be about being someone we wish we were — or maybe it’s both, and wanting the thing is really just a clever way of trying to become the person who has it.
Envy can teach us about our genuine desires and goals, helping us focus on what truly matters to us. By practicing gratitude, distinguishing between sources and objects of envy, and acting on insights to overcome it, we can transform envy into a driving force for self-improvement and collaboration, shifting from "this joy is mine" to "this joy is ours."