Why You Should Stop Envying Others’ Lives
The grass is not always greener on the other side.
Scroll, scroll, scroll. This is the fever nowadays that we all have as we cling to our phones scrolling through Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We often find ourselves in awe of other people’s success and their accolades. We admire their pretty outfits, scenic backgrounds and lavish homes. We wish we had their life. We wish we got that promotion. We wish we had so many followers too. But there is always more than that which can be seen by our plain eyes.
We often envy someone’s success without paying any attention to the plight they had to endure to reach where they are today. Part of the problem is the media’s glorification of “overnight success”. We are often exposed to the part of the iceberg above the water with little to no regard for the massive part below. And this is where we falter.
You cannot want a part of someone’s life. You have to want to have it all. The struggles. The long hours. The criticism. If you want to envy someone, envy all of the other stuff they went through too. Maybe they grew up in a rough neighbourhood and hustled harder to rise above their circumstances. Maybe they had to take minimum wage jobs to pay their way through school. Maybe they slept on a friend’s couch as they built their dream business.
You cannot want something without wanting the sacrifice it takes to get it.
Envying other people’s lives is a great way to diminish your own potential. It is natural to open social media, see a bunch of pictures and think someone has a perfect life. I know a couple who have two cute kids, a perfect home and go away often on luxury holidays with little to no semblance of any hardships. The other day I was browsing Linked In when I realized that her husband actually had lost his job and was looking for new work. But when browsing their photos nobody would have the slightest idea as they maintained their perfect photostream.
So the next time you find yourself idolizing someone’s life, think about this — would anyone post a picture of themselves crying or in heartbreak? The answer is nearly always no. Hence, don’t fall for carefully curated versions of people’s lives. Instead, curate the life you want and dream of.
