J.E.A.L.O.U.S.Y.

                  Jealousy is a little seed that starts innocently, but if not careful, jealousy can grow into a toxic harvest. I encourage you to close your eyes and imagine yourself walking/climbing up a mountain. I picked a mountain because life has it's fair share of ups and downs. Now as your climbing up this mountain, imagine the woman/male/job (Whatever you're jealous of) on your back. Now lets be real, I can barely carry my own body weight up a mountain, now adding another person's body weight would be fatal. I would quickly struggle with shortness of breath, fatigue, injury and would eventually fall down while climbing up the mountain. Now in reality you're not physically carrying this person around, but you are MENTALLY carrying this person or item everywhere you go. Usually when we're jealous of something or someone it tends to be on our minds often.

               I try to write blogs on topics that I have personally experienced in life. It improves my credibility and makes writing more enjoyable. Also, as humans, we tend to seek advice from those that have overcome our current situation/problem. In high school I was jealous of a girl, let's anonymously name her Dream. Dream was beautiful, athletic, intelligent, hard-working, humble and had a kind heart. She had a lot of character traits that I wanted. At first, I did not realize I was jealous of her, until I realized that I would get a mild attitude when she would come around. I never spoke badly about her, but I would get a bit insecure when she would come around. Dream worked hard for everything she had and none of it was given to her. I realized how jealous I was of her when I found out that she was selected to receive an amazing full-ride scholarship for college. For the next week I could not get Dream out of my head. Take note, I was 17 years old and a bit emotional, but some of us are in our mid/early 20's, 30's or 40's and still struggling with this area of jealousy. Looking back, I remember Dream would go to the library every weekend to study for exams and prepare for college. She worked hard for what she had and there I was coveting over something she earned.

              I placed the picture above because that's what a lot of us look like when we are jealous. That's right, you look stanky!!! I know I probably looked stanky when I was jealous! Now I wish I could say I personally realized I was struggling with jealousy, but I can't take credit for that. I know not everyone believes in God, but like I've shared in some of my other blogs, my faith in Jesus keeps me grounded. He quickly convicted me of my jealously. Through conviction I learned how to overcome jealousy. Here are a few tips I used to overcome jealousy.

1.) Success takes work, instead of being jealous, put in WORK to accomplish your own success:

A lot of times we get jealous of others success, but we always seem to forget the work that individual put in to obtain success. That NFL or NBA player probably spent countless hours in the gym working on technique and getting in shape. That Medical Doctor or Pharmacist spent countless hours studying in the library. That well known Make Up artist spent hours practicing their craft and invested a lot of money in their makeup. People don't just achieve success over night, it takes WORK. Most times the only thing we see is the finished product. I had to realize that Dream worked hard for her scholarship and her accomplishments. It did not happen over night. Instead of being jealous, I evaluated some of the habits that Dream had and applied them to my life. I started to study more and became more diligent in my studies. Through hard-work and changing some habits, senior year, I also, received a 6 year renewable scholarship for college. Don't be jealous of others, be happy, evaluate how they obtained success and put in work to obtain your own success.

2.) Take your eyes off the other person and focus on you. You are unique:

Jealousy blinds you from seeing your own potential. You are so focused on the other person and it's holding you back from your full potential. Take time to really focus on you. Focus on your passions and focus on cultivating your skills and talents. You may not be able to sing as well as him or dance as well, but you maybe great at math or comedy. Focus on what makes you, you and perfect that gift. Once you get your eyes off the other individual and start working on yourself, you'll start to discover your unique gifts and talents. You'll be amazed by the great gifts living inside of you right now.

3.) Open Up:

Last, but not least, opening up  to a close friend, family or partner about your struggles with jealousy can help. Yes, you might feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and a bit insecure, but there is something so powerful about speaking out our emotions in a safe place. Often times when we open up to someone we trust, they are able to give us insight and change our perspective on a situation. Hopefully the individual you open up to, will speak life into you and bring to light your God given gifts and talents.

                                      This blog celebrity focus is HEATHER LINDSEY:

 

Heather Lindsey is a Christian Public Speaker, Wife, Mother, Author of 6 books, founder of Pinky Promise and Co-Founder of Lincross Publishing. She is so awesome and full of wisdom. Heather has a Blog and Youtube channel which are full of inspirational topics pertaining to life, relationships, family and Jesus. The video attached above is long, but i'd encourage you to watch the whole video. She speaks on "Overcoming the Comparison Game". If you don't have time to watch the whole video, she focuses on jealousy from 24 minutes into the video till 32 minutes. It's a much watch!

My ultimate goal with each blog post is to uplift others to live to their full potential and accomplish their life purpose. One of my God given gifts is encouragement. I hope this blog post encouraged you in one way or another. My goal is to post one blog each month, but I am currently in my second year in Pharmacy School, working 2 jobs and life is busy! I will do my best to be as consistent as possible.

Remember you are so unique. There is NO ONE like you. Jealousy only blinds you from seeing your full potential.

Much Love,
Titiana Ngongang

Life, Faith &Love™