Avoiding maker's envy

In the last few months I (can you say binge-watching for a podcast?), well, caught up on previous episodes of some podcasts that I had discovered. There were a lot of informative podcasts featuring a lot of interesting people.

I discovered that I was envious of some of the people I was hearing about. That wasn’t a nice self-revelation. I’m supposed to be a caring person, after all!

Trying for more self-understanding I started examining the thought processes that got me to that un-lovely state of Envy. I looked at the kind of people I was envious of. It wasn’t the podcast presenters. It was their guests.

So what about their guests made me envious? Their Fine Arts degrees. Hunh? Why was I envious of that? Well, it seemed to me that I was envious of their degrees because they were successful in my eyes. My illogical thought process said that they had a whole lot of breaks in their business world because of their degree.

Enough of that! I needed to look at where I am coming from a little more clearly. So here we go:

1. Many of the people I was envious of were consumed by art from a young age. Not me.

2. I could have studied many things in college. I didn’t. I studied nursing. Why? Because I could support myself as a nurse.

3. My nursing degree allowed me to work in many different places, and also supported us in a time of need.

4. Their “breaks” weren’t the only thing they had going for many of them. They also tried new things. Oh, I am trying new things too.

5. Do I really want to run a business employing many other people? No. Not my style.

6. Do I really want to be world famous for my creations? No. How annoying!

Hmmmm. Maybe I’m doing all right after all. Maybe I just won’t listen to a podcast right now if the guest has a fine arts degree (unless they are talking about something that I really, really want to know).

What were the steps I used?

1. Figure out what about a person was causing envy.

2. Figure out why that thing was causing me envy.

3. Find advantages I’ve had that the other person may not have had.

4. Find “good” things that I have in common with the other person.

5. Extrapolate their advantages to the nth degree. Are they still something I want?

6. Decide how I will avoid envy in this sort of situation.