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nvy Course

The Virus Called Envy

Envy is amongst the most vile, ugly and scorned attitudes of the human race, but still, amazingly, the most common. Unlike its brother, Pride, envy affects all kinds of people old and young, the rich, the middle class, the poor etc. Obviously, a connecting relationship is found between Pride and Envy (as discussed in my article, Pride and Envy ), but note that, pride leads to envy, but envy does not lead to pride a one way and very interesting relationship.

Envy is the sense of competition with someone who usually does not intend to and is not capable of competing .

Envy, is the inexplicable disdain for someone who usually is succeeding and is seen as a threat to you. It s a typical case of schadenfreude (which involves pleasure in ones misfortune, well because you caused it). The chain of envy infection is actually very simple; It begins with us, being self-satisfied and contented with what we have and where we are, and due to the laziness and idleness of the mind, its competition signal is up trying to detect the slightest positionthreatening action by anybody (because, though you feel satisfied with where you are, the human mind is always trying to guard that position (this is the danger of stagnation + idleness)), then when it inevitably picks up the signal of a lowly positioned colleague (you ll be surprised at the status of your competition ) trying to become more effective so as to earn a little more, this new improvement by this colleague looks threatening, you wait and study him to see if he is a real threat (and by real threat, I mean, a consistent threat), and when he or someone else, turns out to be, he becomes your competition whereas, he is so far away from your group to be able to compete with you and you begin to orchestrate his fall. Envy = Competition From this practical analogy, we can not only pick out the causes, nature but also the prevention and cure for envy. See as envy started; it started with someone beginning to make a consistent improvement in their work, heres the magic:

You see, the sense of competition arose, when a fellow colleague decided and started making consistent improvements in himself thereby, making himself seem as a threat to your position therefore, to conquer the consuming feeling of envy, you must begin further improving yourself, so that, you can replce this ugly feeling with an extra feeling of maturity, experience and superirorty. That s it! Envy is nothing but an identity crisi, you think someone else is resuming your identity, because you have been too lazy and currently idle to improve on yours. The unusual fact about envy, that same person, you suddenly deem a threat is the same

person that you saw as ordinary or normal when you still had challenging and experiential tasks that made you busy and better, but now, out of the blues, you suddenly hold this person as a threat .

WHY?! Because, you have stopped moving, and you are now afraid that this person with a consistent velocity might get to you and might even overtake you.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE THINGS I CAN DO OUT OF ENVY?! Well, since you re now focused on securing your average position against this seeming threat , you would predictably do anything (in progressive stages) to slow down and terminate the steady climb of this threat . This, of course, is a gradual form of negative transformation, starting from trying to make the colleague look bad, to trying to kill him/her.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF ENVY?! Once you take that first step into the path of envy, you begin to look, act and be taken as a grumpy jerk (no offense, but if you actually sit down and analysize your actions during your envy-rage you ll confirm this fact). Then, all of a sudden, you be the one looking bad as, you lose all your sense of creativity and productivity in the company, because, all of these abilities have been focused on the elimination of this threat , you ll find yourself opposing every suggestion of this fellow, even those that are sound, so now, who is looking bad? With this, you ll naturally start getting out of favour (something envy naturally does steals your aura of joy). Generally, the path of envy is a backward path, you can never get forward while walking in envy, release the envy, and apply the principles to be listed, and you ll recover all and even get better.

Yes, Pride goes before a downfall, but, Envy starts the downfall -Onyemenam Chinodebem.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE THREAT ? This is like asking, what happens between a jerk and the jerked (please, don t use this term at home), the jerk gets thrown out, the jerked gets compensated. Actually not as simple as that, but you see, as you begin to act on the impulse of envy and start opposing the bright ideas of this colleague, you are indirectly exposing and marketing the remarkable potential ability of the fellow (which is usually discovered after the chairman ponders over the issue) as the company would later discover the bright nature of the opposed idea of this threat , and would be further seen as authentic and rare, as it received an unsuccessful opposition by a highly placed worker that being you. So who is looking bad now? At the long run, the company would finally decide to give this fellow a chance to fully reveal his potential, therefore, either replacing your or overtaking you, nothing less.

WHAT CAN I DO?! First of all, stop walking in this path, that means, stop focusing your creative abilities to the downfall of another. For you to have a competition , it only shows that you need to become more creative and more impactful in the company, so as to drown whatever intensity of wave the threat is trying to build up, thereby, showing that your still beneficial and more useful than others (that s what got you there and that s what you need to remain there). The best way to deal with envy is to be the better one, not by crook or hook, but by training and self improvement. Show the company that you are better than the lot, effortlessly, this means, extra training, further education etc. IS IT TOO LATE ?! It is never too late to recover from envy (except if you have already eliminated your threat ), but, the further you submerge, the more devastating it would be for your career, reputation, respect and life in general. Following the principles of re-focusing on what matters (your business at this point), and a further self-improvement would make you appear effortlessly better than others (this is what your position requires), thereby, retaining or rebuilding your respect and your hold on your position.