How to use Envy, Jealousy and FOMO to Drive Creativity
One of the most common stumbling blocks I find among creatives, entrepreneurs, and artists is the nagging feeling of envy or jealousy that can distract, discourage and even debilitate our workflow.
FOMO feels like it’s at an all time high, fueled by a never-ending stream of celebrities, socialites, and friends killing it in the game of life — or so it seems from their social media feeds.
At times it’s inevitable, the sneaking feeling that if you just had that one thing, or were born into a different situation, or had the benefit of a different set of friends or family, you could be where they are now — rich, successful, beautiful, thriving.
Someone else, somewhere else… anyone but who you are, where you are.
Why is that feeling so endemic to creatives? Why does this feeling persist — that you are not good enough, that NOW is not good enough?
I know I experience that feeling of jealousy and depending on the day, the effect can vary from mildly annoying to completely incapacitating.
The good news is, as a creator, there is an escape route, and it’s not too hard to achieve.
Dialing it Up
The first thing to realize is the very act of envying others’ success is a waste of your time. If you inadvertently become seduced by the luxury of contemplating why others are more successful than you, or why you aren’t where you’d like to be, it probably means you aren’t spending enough time building your dream.
If you can dedicate more time to doing the thing you want to do, building the future you want to inhabit, you’ll feel more excited by the process and necessarily have less time to be looking at what others are doing.
Time to get busy building.
Turn your jealousy into inspiration, into motivation, into energy.
It’s not that big a leap.
Get out of the scarcity mindset.
There’s no shortage of success in the world — and there never will be. There’s no shortage of money, or love, or fame, or any other marker of success you can imagine. It’s not like the world is going to run out of these things if you haven’t yet achieved all you’d like.
If what you are building has true value, it will be lauded no matter when you complete it.
The world is patient in that way.
No matter how fast paced our lives seem to be, life will not pass you by if what you are creating is beautiful, unique, or valuable.
People will always recognize and respond to that.
And if what you’re building doesn’t have true value, you’ll learn that, too.
Wisdom comes no faster or more keenly than through failure. You can’t overstate the value of failing — it’s a crucial part of the process and one of the best ways to learn and grow. If you can accept it as a part of the process and not get too bummed by the failure itself, it can even be encouraging.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
— Thomas Edison
There’s nothing wrong with who you are. There’s nothing wrong with where or when you are.
In fact, you’re perfectly positioned to take your next step toward success. You’re in exactly the right place with all the resources you need at your fingertips. You just need to act.
Get to work.
