Navigating envy

When we look at someone's work or video and say, 'I wish,' 'I desire,' 'I could be like that,' or 'I should do that,' we are expressing envy. Envy to be like them or to replicate them. This can be a good thing if you are starting out and want to try a bunch of different styles, methods, and see which one works for you. At the other end, if you are doing this to be like them, to replicate their success, then that is envy, and you are playing a losing game. Because you are now in their shadow, and you will never get in front by following.

Replicating one's methods is something, repeating what someone else has done continuously is copying. It's hoping you can take a shortcut to success, and it is also expressing envy for what the person has or has done. This is dangerous because we lose a sense of self when we copy. Our thoughts, ideas, and personality are no longer being expressed. We have turned to conformity and are now designed by a committee, a boardroom using strategies and techniques that have been done and might work for a period of time. But at the end of the day, this isn't your idea, your form of expression, and will come off as soulless.

Envy is a scary thing because we all look up to our idols. We want success in whichever form we measure it. We want to be liked, and we want to make a difference or at the very least a ton of money. But envy can also reveal our tastes. The trick is knowing when to stop copying and go it alone.

"Start copying what you love. Copy, copy, copy, copy. At the end of the copy, you will find yourself." - Yohji Yamamoto

I truly believe this, as a beginner, we need to copy, to test, try, and experiment with what we see and like. As soon as you have obtained the knowledge and skills from copying, you have learned the notes, the way to combine flavours, it's time to put away the book and go it alone. Be done with walking in other people's shadows and start making your own as you walk your path.

Envy can tell us a lot of things, and it can show us who we want to be and the values we want to obtain. But know when to stop envying others because we have to try doing our thing. We have to learn from our failures and our mistakes because it's through failure that we learn the most, we learn the quickest. Show the world who you are and what you have learned. Be generous to the world by being in it as yourself, whole and true. It can take time, but ones we have we put down other peoples books and start writing our own, that’s how we navigate envy.