Knowing and understanding the difference between jealousy and envy is the key to knowing the who, what, how, and when of establishing boundaries and, in some cases, closing doors permanently. This is a fundamental lesson that took me years to learn because I was conditioned to trust the wrong people.
Definitely, jealousy and envy are not the same thing.
As you say, trusting the wrong people can lead us to learn painful lessons, but it is also part of our growth. This often happens, we don't really learn a lesson until it happens to us first hand, but it would be better to learn from the experience of others much more than we usually do.
Great read. This reminded me of a quote from an iconic Indian film 3 Idiots, which I'm translating here-"It feels bad to see your friend fail in class but it feels worse to see him top the class." XD
I have two interconnected questions though. Is healthy envy really "healthy" in the true sense of the word? And can envy really become a key to self-improvement or is that just us trying to negotiate with the widespread envy existing in society?
1. "Healthy" envy simply shares a name with common envy, however it does not function the same on a psychological level. It is a semantic question, it is called the same, it could have another name that feeling.
2. Envy is what makes many people progress. The human being is always competing, that guarantees our survival. If the neighbor does better than us, we will tend to make more effort, that is why envy acts as a mechanism to improve the species (as long as we do not kill each other).
Knowing and understanding the difference between jealousy and envy is the key to knowing the who, what, how, and when of establishing boundaries and, in some cases, closing doors permanently. This is a fundamental lesson that took me years to learn because I was conditioned to trust the wrong people.
Definitely, jealousy and envy are not the same thing.
As you say, trusting the wrong people can lead us to learn painful lessons, but it is also part of our growth. This often happens, we don't really learn a lesson until it happens to us first hand, but it would be better to learn from the experience of others much more than we usually do.
Great read. This reminded me of a quote from an iconic Indian film 3 Idiots, which I'm translating here-"It feels bad to see your friend fail in class but it feels worse to see him top the class." XD
I have two interconnected questions though. Is healthy envy really "healthy" in the true sense of the word? And can envy really become a key to self-improvement or is that just us trying to negotiate with the widespread envy existing in society?
What good questions!
1. "Healthy" envy simply shares a name with common envy, however it does not function the same on a psychological level. It is a semantic question, it is called the same, it could have another name that feeling.
2. Envy is what makes many people progress. The human being is always competing, that guarantees our survival. If the neighbor does better than us, we will tend to make more effort, that is why envy acts as a mechanism to improve the species (as long as we do not kill each other).