Jealousy

jeal·ous

/ˈjeləs/

adjective

feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages.

“he grew jealous of her success”

synonyms:

envious, covetous, desirous;

Last week I was in a townhall meeting and my director as he finished presenting asked a question to the audience of ~20 people. “What are you jealous of?”

He asked this question to us to consider in not a malicious way, but a way to seek our raw desires and ambitions. Jealousy is a universal trait exhibited by all humans and it isn’t something to be ashamed of. Jealous feelings can be used productively to help motivate yourself to improve towards a longer-term goal. Alternatively jealously can cause a dangerous spiral into feelings of inferiority and resentment of circumstances. At this meeting we will try to harness the feelings of envy that we all harbor to propel ourselves rather than to hold us back.

At the first Early Birds > Late Worms breakfast I’d like the each of us to take some time to answer some of the following questions:

• What are you jealous of in your personal career?
  • Did a coworker get a special assignment to which you were overlooked?
  • What can you do to
• Who in your workplace are you jealous of?
  • You do not need to explicitly describe this person. Instead, describe the qualities they possess
  • How did these people get to the position they are in?
  • Are you on a similar path? Is it worth comparison or is it apples to oranges?
• What do you think you possess that others may be jealous of?
• How are you keeping yourself special? i.e. holding onto what makes others jealous of you?
  
  I would like it if each member of the breakfast club comes prepared to actively participate in discussion regarding jealousy. The intent of this meeting is to provoke some introspection together to make sense of our personal desires desires. The meeting will start promptly after seating at OEB. We will be following Roberts Rules. At the end of the meeting, if we are satisfied we will suggest a new topic for the second meeting.
  
  Future Topic Ideas:
  
  Machiavellian Planning (Game Theory / Zero Sum Games / House of Cards / Game of Thrones)
  
  Iterative Optimization (Finding efficiencies in daily routines to free up time for growth)
  
  5 Year Planning feat. Joe Stalin and Elon Musk
  
  Parallel Lines or Parallel Lives? (Contingency planning for layoffs & finding mentors outside of your industry who have the skillset you desire/possess)