Have you ever found yourself staring at a painting in an art gallery and coveted I would have done it OR heard an impressive musical composition and desired you would have composed it OR read a piece of literary work and wondered how author was able to write such an outstanding narration?
Yes, we all endure this emotional pain called ‘creativity envy’ – we find ourselves consumed with others’ success.
No matter it is something extraordinary in a discipline other than art or literature; no matter this exceptional work is a contribution from a person we don’t know personally or from our fellows or co-workers; no matter it’s a creation, an idea or an innovation, there is always a wish that we would have thought of it before anyone else did – we do envy others.
Every time we see others accomplishing great things we become envious. Undoubtedly, it’s not unusual but it may be quiet depressing for anyone and devastates overall performance.
Creativity envy keeps tugging at your sleeves and begs for your attention, the more you pay attention to it, the more you empower it and more it commands your thoughts and feelings – Envy makes you miserable – influences your creativity adversely.
Envy lets you run away and hide, you feel demotivated and discouraged – you disregard your own talents and ambitions.
Struggling with this emotional pain and trying to get rid of it (as it worsens your creativity and overall performance)?
Be realistic enough – as you can’t get rid of this toxic feeling completely, you can overcome it when it tries to oppress you.
Here are some tips to beat it:
1. Acknowledge envying is a normal feeling
While dealing with envy we often try to get rid of it completely, its not possible, however. We like to believe that we have control over our emotions, but we don’t have; so how can we control these negative emotions of creative envy? It’s a normal feeling, its realistic that we can get rid of it but not entirely. What else, everyone confronts it, even the person you are envying at this moment would be envying someone else. Once you start thinking this way, you accept the feeling and you take your first step towards beating it.
2. Be specific
While dealing with envy you need to be specific – you have to 
identify what exactly is envying you; what sparks your envy? Is it communication skill of your coworker that is envying you or is it his promotion that is making you miserable? Whether it is the recognition that your friend has achieved as a result of his current literary work or the rewards he is garnering is envious to you. Once you identify that what is actually envying you, you trace the roots behind your feelings of envy and manage to find ways to beat it.
3. Stay on your purpose
Being a writer, artist, entrepreneur or literally any professional or beyond professionalism you would have 
defined your purpose and meaning of your life. When you stick to that purpose, you no longer concentrate on the performance of others, and you are no more envious of other’s performance and accomplishments. For instance, as a writer your goal is to create original and obscure content, then no matter your fellow writer is earning respect, money and fame, you don’t bother even. This way you will not be envious anymore and your creativity will never worsen.
4. Move step by step but be consistent
Envy is not a feeling that will go immediately or on a short notice, rather you have to work gradually and consistently to get rid of it. If you will try to beat it immediately then things will get aggravated and everything will seem out of control. So, you have to follow step by step procedure – trace out what to do first, what to do next and so on….. this way you may turn your envy into motivation.
5. Don’t forget to be grateful
Whenever we are in a state of creative envy, we stop acknowledging what is important in our life and what’s not, what we have achieved and what we have lost. We start to take granted all those things that were once valuable in our lives but envy destroyed their taste. But this is not the right attitude. In order to beat your creative envy, you must be grateful for what you have or for the amazing things in your life. Start being grateful from now, at the end of the day count and identify the good things that happened to you during that entire day..
6. Get out of comparison trap
Stop comparing your performance to those of others. Comparison is a trap, you have to protect yourself against 
falling into it. Develop and maintain a stable sense of self that will lead to building your identity and self-esteem and in this way you will remain stick to your truest beliefs. If you start comparing yourself to others, then you will never be able to get out of this strong emotional pain known as envy. The best idea is to compare your current performance to your past performance and analyze whether you improved over time or not. There is no point in comparing your performance to the performance of others. What else, you have to do is to isolate yourself from those who believe in comparing themselves to others because these people may direct you to underestimate your true potentials and this will let envy to dominate your personality
7. Appreciate your competitive advantage
Everybody has some qualities that make him or her different from others, of course, you will also have such qualities that make you unique and that make your work exquisite. When you do know what makes you different from others, you will not get envied when you will see someone achieving something great. This way you will not let your creative envy dominate you and you will successfully beat it.
Whenever we see others accomplishing amazing things, we start confronting professional envy and it adversely affects our performance because it is so powerful that we start denying our true potential and get trapped into this negative emotional state. The only way to deal with it is identifying what makes us envious and what are our values and purpose; then follow tips to beat it.
Think differently and don’t let your creative envy destroy your creativity, just refine your creative thinking skills and live up to your potential.
Follow us:
Facebook : Think Different Nation
Instagram : Think Different Nation
Twitter : @TDN_Podcast