2nd February 2010
Cultivate Constructive Jealousy!
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC)
The word jealous means becoming envious of someone's success. By itself there is nothing wrong in becoming envious of some body who is doing something great. In real life we notice that there are people who do better than us and there are also those who are not doing as well as we do. We need to notice this gap. This is the first step towards self improvement. Unless and until we take this first step, we will not take the next step of initiating an action plan to improve our performance.
The good thing about feeling jealous is that you accept that someone is better than you. This is humility and it is a good quality to be developed. It is natural that our ego will not permit us to accept that someone is better than us. Our ego will allow us to notice only people who are not as good as we are.
The second stage after you feel jealous is that you become emotionally disturbed and your mind makes you to feel uncomfortable. You go through a stage where you feel like improving your performance to beat the other person. If you do not feel jealous, the chances are that you will become complacent about your own performance.
The third stage in this process is you will get the necessary mental energy and motivation to take the actions to improve your performance. This releases a positive energy in you. This energy is required to sustain your action plan to improve your performance.
This week end, you can make a list of at least five people whom you know well who are better than you in some respect. It could be simple things such as dress code, aesthetic sense, sense of humour, developing friends, frugality etc. After doing this, give a rating for all these factors from 0 to 10 and mark where you are where are those people who do better than you. After making this list, consider how you could beat them in these parameters.
Do this exercise and notice how you feel!
N C Sridharan
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