Now I want to be quite clear on this as many people mistake jealous for envy so lets be clear on which each one means before we go any further.
Envy
Wanting
what someone else has and resenting them for having it.
Example: Some you despise has won a new car and you want one.
Jealousy
Jealousy is that unpleasant emotion you feel when you think someone’s trying to take what’s yours.
Example: one of your friends is chatting with another person but you are annoyed they are chatting to them instead of you
I think most people have felt these things during their lives but what are the pros and cons of these.
I have noticed a few people have used their Jealousy and Envy as a sort of drive to do better at a particular task. Now in terms of work these may have some benefits in that it is driving you work harder, if you look across the internet hate but it becomes for the wrong reasons. I have also noticed there is an increasing amount of envy with people being people younger than them. Some of them feel that they are ashamed or embarrassed to be around younger people who are more successful than them. It is difficult to measure success as everyone view of success is different and just because someone is older or younger than you does not make then any less or more worthy. It’s important to remember that we won’t rely ever now how much it takes for people achieve what they do. It may look easy looking in from the outside but that person could be giving literally every single thing they have to get to were they are and do what they do.
In the Creative field people get very envious about
–Money
There are some very talented film directions who are friendly to their fellow cast and crew members but when money enters the picture it becomes a whole different story and what seemed like once friendly and polite individuals can turn on each other very quickly and soon turn into lawsuits were 2 sides of people battle it out for more money. It does some to very frightening that money can turn people into such greedy little sods even when peoples family members die loads of people rush in to take belongs and grab money. It is important that money does not always reflect the level of work done or whether it is a good deed. There are many lazy people who get paid a fortune and there are many people with huge amounts of money who do bad things. Certainly money can be a great aid for people as it can pay for more training, equipment and also travel to the places you need to go and I can understand in some ways that it can be hard having little money to be able to do the things you want to do.
-Rewards/recognition
I feel I don’t see this very often but there is the occasional person who will have an angry screamy face for seeing someone they dislike when something. However being nominated for the Audio Verse Awards for several years now I have actually seen a lot of people posting quite positive things about one another and so many people getting their shows discovered whether they win or not. If you don’t win in compeition but you get enjoyed with the content you create don’t let it discourage you there is so much talent around it must be etremly difficult for those voters or juudgs that have to choose winners of these types of awards.
-More job offers/opportunities
Now usually in the creative field you can pitch for a job or someone may come to you asking for you do something for them. Now I must say I don’t like pitching for jobs I see it a lot in the facebook groups a person will say they want a composer for such and such and tons of people will comment now how matter how small the details are of the request. This can sometimes put colleagues and friends in the this sort of virtual fight for the job win. For me this makes me slightly uncomfortable as I tend to feel bad about taking opportunities away from others also that sort of competing can lead to anxiety. Out of about 40 audio drama jobs I think 95% of them the people in charge have come to me fortunately. One sad thing i have noticed is that some crew opportunities for jobs request certain ages like 18-25 or -18-40. I can see why some people would want to work with people their own age but we are all adults and i feel we should be chatting and working with people of all ages.
-Popularity
Popularity is a tricky one as popularity doesn’t always equal quality and it doesn’t always mean it’s for a good thing.
Being envious of people especially friends or family can be a very mind set to be in and this result in
- putting the person you are envious of down this could be about them or their work
- ignoring the person in spite
- talking being the persons back to put them down or spread lies
This could result in arguments, damaged feelings and even loosing your relationship with your friend colleague or family member. It will also be embarrassing for you if people work out you have behaved terribly to someone out of envy. If you do feel envious of someone close to you you may wish to be honest with them about your feelings in a friendly non angry way. We also want to remember that we care about those close to us and that actually would be much happier if we all supported each other instead of behaving in a child fashion to each other.
We are all unique know when else is like us we all have had different families teachers friends, influences interests and training and there is so much we can learn from each other so lets make the world a little less envious and a lot more supportive.
