Raise your hand if you’ve spent any time in the past month dreaming about a different life. — Amie M. Gordon, Ph.D.
Parents, schoolteachers, and other grownups usually tell youngsters how to behave. “Ask before taking anything,” “stand up for yourself,” and “be polite” are some of the things that children hear from them. There are plenty of don’t’s as well, such as staying angry, not sharing your blessing, and being jealous.
Most of them make perfect sense, of course. The adults want to prevent kids from doing poor things; that’s why the ethics lessons are always there. However, there are still emotions that seem wrong at first, yet they may be advantageous as long as you have them in tiny doses.
Take jealousy, for example. Learn how it can work for you down below.
- You Become A Curious Person
Curiosity, contrary to popular belief, does not kill anything. It can motivate you to find out how someone else achieved a dream that’s very similar to yours. In case you can’t reach them in person, you read articles or see videos of them online and try to understand the difference between your methods toward success.
Schedule a five minute “priority-setting” session for yourself every day, even non-workdays. — Marcia Reynolds Psy.D.
- It Makes Your Goals Clear
When you are jealous, it means you wish to have what others have. That feeling can be beneficial for you because you immediately have an idea about the things you want in life. The single time it won’t work out for you is once you try to take away their source of happiness instead of seeking your own.
- Competition Can Inspire You To Do Better
It is effortless to sulk and stay mad at people for outgunning you in areas of academics, business, or love. You can make faces all day long behind their back, yet that won’t still push you to the top. A better way is to see their achievements as the new standard so that everything you’ll do from that moment on may allow you to beat them.
- You Can Turn Rivals Into Colleagues
Do you remember how the antagonists in the movies often say, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”? Protagonists in real life can believe in that too without being mean. After all, any industry is big enough for multiple players. The more connections you have within the same field, the higher your chances will be of succeeding.
To varying degrees, we fail to differentiate ourselves, to separate from limiting outside influences and realize our unique value in the world around us. — Lisa Firestone, Ph.D.
- It Lets You Revisit Your Strategies
Becoming jealous of another individual’s accomplishments should be a wake-up call to you that something in your plan isn’t right. For a student, perhaps you’re focusing more on playing video games or dating; thus, a classmate got better grades than you. For a career man or woman, maybe you need to come up with more ideas to show the bosses and clients that you’re worthy of their trust.
- You’ll Be Able To Learn From Success Stories
You may transform jealousy into appreciation. Those smart folks indeed went out of their way to get what they want; that’s why they deserve to reap the benefits of their hard work. Once you finally accept that they did a great job, you can then concentrate on making a similar thing happen in your life.