Jealousy and Pride

Setting goals for ourselves is a useful tool. When we decide that we can only be content once we achieve our goals, then we will be discontent with our current state. When we decide that our contentment is determined by us reaching that higher state, we will feel pressure to reach it. As the pressure mounts up, we will frantically take measure of our progress.

In order to determine if we are progressing, our mind has to have a standard to compare against. Our mind will constantly use people around us as a means to judge our current position. Jealousy occurs when we compare our current state to the state of others, and we feel that we are less than them. Pride occurs when we compare our current state to the state of others, and we feel we are doing better than them.

When we are jealous of others, we start to nitpick the people we are jealous of. We revel in their failings and short comings. We feel better about ourselves when they fail. This occurs because our mind is judging our own progress by comparing our growth to theirs. If they fall short, our progress seems to be farther along, by comparison.

When we feel superior to others, we feel a false sense of attainment. We feel that we are farther along in our growth than we might be. We fail to see the value in others, because we feel that we have surpassed them. When we notice their flaws we feel pleased with ourselves, because we are using our comparison to that person to measure our current state.

When we let go of the idea that contentment will be found once we reached our ideal state, we will reduce pressure on ourselves. We will allow ourselves to focus on what is around us. We will allow ourselves to enjoy the moment we are in. Our tendency to judge our position in comparison with others will dramatically drop. We will find that Jealousy and pride will disappear, when we let go of the idea that we must reach a specific position before we can be content in our lives.