Ain't Easy Being Green

Green with jealousy.

That little feeling in the pit of your stomach that feels like a bad plate of Kung Pow chicken.

The feeling of "Why not me? Why them?"

We all get it and I bet every single one of you (Don't you dare shake your head "No"! You've been there too) have had one than one night where you have measured yourself against someone's successes and said "That's not fair!" You have grumbled, griped, called your mom, called your best friend and told yourself in the mirror, "that should be me. *I* deserve it more" Whether if its because of someone's weight loss, job promotion, status in the community, relationships or__insert your reason here___.

Here is the secret. Stop talking to yourself in the mirror and LOOK at yourself in the mirror. There is a slim possiblity that the person you are jealous of got smacked with a wand containing good fortune fairy dust, but more than likely it was because of the choices made by that person. Choices that you haven't made because of lack of opportunity or lack of incentive.

Sometimes we don't have the opportunities that others have had awarded them. Not all of us where awarded the last name Rockefeller or Hilton. Sometimes we haven't noticed the opportunity when it was presented to us and known what to do with it. Opportunities are a funny little business. A lot of times opportunity is quietly knocking on the door waiting for you to answer it and other times you have to hunt it down, tackle it and drag it home. The most important thing to do is when opportunity does come, you have to seize it and make the most of it.
For a lot of us out there (myself included) its a lack of incentive. You may have the opportunity sitting in your lap like a kitten, purring and just waiting for your attention; but you lack the motivation or fore-sight to see what is waiting for you if you just jump. I am someone who likes instant results on my endeavors (pregnancy was rough...that whole 9 months of baking is far from instant results) I want to see an immediate upswing in order to keep pressing on. A lot of times you can have what the other person has if you are willing to take the 3 mile journey that they did. The secret to that is to go ahead and look 3 miles down the road at your destination and not at every agonizing little step along the way (do stop and smell the flowers though!)

So that whole jealousy bit? You might can avoid the whole shade of green if you take a minute to examine what is so different between you and that person you are jealous of. It's possible that with taking the same determined and focused steps, you can have exactly what you are jealous of?