Say you are secretly the most competitive, jealous, judgmental person you know. You open social media and realized today is the worst day of your life. You are frustrated because that one college nemesis is enjoying a lavish Europe vacation, Your college roommate is preparing to get married and that random LinkedIn connection just made senior consultant at his firm.
But, you are saving for an Europe vacation yourself, you are kinda getting serious with someone and you are likely to get promoted in the next yearly cycle. If you really think about it you are just 2-4 years “behind” these people on very narrow slices of your life.
“But you shouldn’t compare yourself with others, You don’t know their whole life. Maybe they are struggling with something you don’t know about. No point in being jealous of them. ” – Yeah. A well meaning friend might say these things to you. But this is not your first rodeo. you have heard these arguments before. You know they don’t work to pacify your competitive, fierce self.
I want to offer a different solution, If someone seems to be “2 years” ahead of you in terms of salary, status, relationships, then you can beat them by just outliving them by 5 years. You just need to take your jealousy and competitiveness to the long term. You can outcompete most people around you by just exercising regularly, eating healthy and getting a good night’s sleep. Isn’t that great?
So, yeah. Be competitive. Be jealous and Be healthy.