Today is July 23 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you allow envy to devour you?”
Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn said "Our envy of others devours us most of all."
Successful people who navigate the chaos spend little, if any, time allowing envy to devour them or distract them from achieving their dreams.
Envy derives from the Latin invidia, which means nonsight; this etymology suggests that envy either arises from, or results in, a form of blindness—or maybe both. Another way to ask today’s question is “How often do you find yourself so blind from your feelings towards others that you lose sight of who you are? In his examination of envy, author
Neel Burton wrote “The pain of envy is not caused by the desire for the advantages of others per se, but by the feeling of inferiority and frustration occasioned by their lack in ourselves. The distraction of envy and the dread of arousing it in others paradoxically holds us back from achieving our fullest potential. Envy also costs us friends and allies, and, more generally, tempers, restrains, and undermines even our closest relationships. In some cases, it can even lead to acts of sabotage, as with the child who breaks the toy that he knows he cannot have. Over time, our anguish and bitterness can lead to physical health problems such as infections, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers; and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. We are, quite literally, consumed by envy.”
How often do you allow envy to devour you?