I believe it is not all bad when beginning something new and different to use the performances of others as a means of measurement. Others in similar situations establish the ground rules. They provide a yardstick.
But once we know the rules, we should turn our attention to what we are doing, not what others are doing or have done, don’t you think? When the focus is on the performances of others, we lose sight of what we are capable of doing.
I have discovered that champions don’t waste time and energy concerning themselves with how others are performing. They don’t lay awake at night thinking about things like: is someone else getting ahead faster…getting more attention from the boss… making more money.
Let me pose a straight-up question: Can we live up to our own potential when we are always concerned with what others have accomplished, or the attention they are getting? We can rest assured that the envy of others is a direct path to mediocrity.
One of the hardest lessons for any of us to learn is to stand up and applaud the success of others – and really mean it. I hope I have made the point that an envious nature is highly detrimental to the ability to perform at a peak level.
A very useful strategy for all of us to use is to redirect the feelings of envy from a desire to "hurt" someone, to the drive to better our own performances. We need to focus on fulfilling our own potential.
What others have done does not diminish the opportunity for us to do equally as well, does it? If anything, we should see if there’s not something we can learn from them to enhance our own efforts.
Truthfully, our least concern should be whether we are better or worse than others. No matter how good we are at what we do, there is probably someone who can do it a little better.
They may have more talent, more resources, more experience. Because they have more doesn’t make what we have less, does it?
What others achieve doesn’t diminish the opportunities available to us. There's room in this world for all of us to fulfill our potential and become the very best we possibly can be – at something
