Good Information behind the Envy

I received an email from one of my many creative clients who was suffering. She acknowledged that it was self-inflicted. She had just been online and found an artist’s site she found enviable, which got her thoroughly depressed. The Internet makes it easier than ever to compare ourselves and our businesses to others.

I well remember that pain having once swum in those same self-flagellation waters. It happened to me at craft shows back in the 90’s when another artist’s booth would have me drooling with envy. It happened during my coaching certification process as I listened to CD recordings of master coaches helping clients. I want that!. NOW!

Anyone else out there identifying with the grass is greener syndrome? There’s some good information hidden in the pain of that envy.

You become crystal clear about what it is you’d like to achieve in your business/life–an elegant website, numerous comments on a blog, hundreds or thousands of followers on twitter. It’s an opportunity to take a step back and figure out exactly what is so enviable. And what it might take to achieve that. These can become your goals if they’re really important. The suffering is definitely optional.

Visit my blog to see some of the “bumper sticker” wisdom I’ve come to appreciate when recited by my friends. Share some of your tips for getting to the lesson behind the envy.

It’s one thing to find yourself in a bad situation and try to improve it. It’s another, to stand pat and do nothing. My hard-earned advice…

Act Promptly to Avoid Self-Pity

I felt humiliated when I saw that people weren’t entering my booth. I could have moved my display forward, but I’ll never know whether that solution would have worked because I made the decision not to care. Talk about self-pity; that was self destruction!

Lesson 31 in my book, Soul Proprietor, 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entrepreneur, is “Self-pity will get you nowhere. You have to respond to a tough situation directly with action.”

I’ve learned my lesson. Now, when I analyze a situation and see that I could wallow in self-pity or improve it, I act promptly. The longer I wait, the more likely I am to stamp my feet at the unfairness of the world. If I want to move forward, I have to take the step right away. The longer I delay the action, the more likely I am to dive into the morass of self-pity.

A lot of people are caught up with how “unfair” things are right now. What action are you going to take?