Doodle Card #257 – Keep Learning & Do Better

 

Keep learning & do better.
学び続けて、もっとうまくなろう。

 

“Envy is the ulcer of the soul.” ― Socrates

So how can we avoid being envious? Can we really do that?

Confession: Since my childhood, I have been envious of skills and talents of others. At younger age, I was also envious of good-looking and charming guy — I gave up on it a long time ago, but I still can’t stop feeling envious of other’s brilliance.

Psychologists would say, stop focusing on what we don’t have rather than what we do have, or stop comparing ourselves to others. But in a real-life situation, we (or our products and/or services) are always compared with someone or something else. Even psychologists or self-help gurus, who say envy is a bad thing, always compare someone/something with someone/something else.

Is envy really a bad thing? It can be the source of motivation that makes us better and help us reach to a higher level. In a highly competitive world, feeing envious might be inevitable, and it would not necessarily be a bad thing — unless it connects with inaction. That can be a really bad thing.