Inspiration and jealousy

By Park Ji-hyun

It is natural for people to experience jealousy toward those who have succeeded in life, as we live in a competitive society. It doesn’t matter who the targets are, be they celebrities, close friends or even siblings. Perhaps that feeling of jealousy has existed ever since the appearance of animals on Earth, because there has always been an order of rank in the animal kingdom.

Nonetheless, that does not mean that you should keep envying others, for the sake of your mental health. I am not trying to tell people to stop being jealous of others. Rather, I would like to share some tips on how to overcome jealousy and get inspired by it.

To begin, the terms “jealousy” and “inspiration” are like pieces of paper that you can turn over at will. However, there is a significant difference between them. Jealousy ignites insecurity while inspiration ignites passion.

For example, envying someone because he has a special gift that you don’t have, and feeling insecure thinking you fall behind him, is jealousy. This jealousy turns into hatred and sarcasm, while leaving you feeling distressed and defeated. On the contrary, admiring someone and setting him up as your wannabe feature means you are inspired.

Like turning over a piece of paper, you can reduce your jealousy if you change your mindset just a little bit.

First, acknowledge that you are jealous of someone else. People tend to dislike someone without even knowing why they hate that person. This phenomenon is especially pervasive in the case of celebrities, for they have so many haters who insult them without any plausible reason.

Typical keyboard warriors insult celebrities assuming that they will have some unknown defects since they are so well-off and good-looking. Indeed, the unreasonable hatred comes from jealousy. Moreover, even though people realize that they are envious of someone, they tend to deny it. They feel like it’s shameful to envy someone. However, the first stage in stepping outside of jealousy is to admit that you are jealous and find the real cause of your jealousy. You have to look deep inside your mind and hear what it says.

For instance, I envied my older sister when I was young. At first, I thought I was just jealous of her because she was prettier than me. So, I was caught up trying to catch up with her beauty. Then, in a light-bulb moment, I found out that the real reason was my sister’s sociability. To me, everyone seemed to love her. Maybe I thought that her beauty made everybody like her, while her sociability was actually what made her lovely. Knowing the cause of jealousy is crucial for it helps you to develop that trait into your trait.

Lastly, start imitating the trait about which you are jealous, with passion. It may sound reprehensible, but nobody will even know that you are following your wannabe’s merits. Let’s say your wannabe smiles a lot. If you try to smile a lot just like him, it will make a huge difference in your life even if it was just a trivial thing. Then, after following your wannabe’s merits in phases, try to build magnetism by adding specialties that only you have.

To be sure, I am not giving these tips as a sage. I am recommending, and at the same time reminding myself not to be jealous of anyone without any inspiration. After all, we are all imperfect beings who deserve respect. Therefore, let us wash out our malicious envy and make use of that jealousy in a good way.

The writer is a junior majoring in English language at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Her email address is pju957@gmail.com.