In my own experience I sometimes struggle to always be happy for and celebrate the success of others. I often find that I am sometimes indifferent to the success of others. Even worse than this however I am sometimes envious and displeased at the success of others. I know this is something that I should not be doing but I just can’t help it sometimes. There is this competitive aspect of myself that makes me feel threatened by the success of others.
I feel threatened because there is some part of me that somehow believes that the success of others means that there is less to go around. There is this “little whisper” that is trying to convince me that the other person’s success is somehow going to prevent me from doing well and getting what I need. I am not unique in this way. It actually seems to be part of the human condition. We connect our own well being with the amount of recognition we get from others. Because of this we feel threatened by the success of others because we feel they are going to take recognition that could be ours.
Of course the question to ask is whether or not this is a reasonable thing to believe? Is this a wise little whisper or should it be ignored? I hope its plain to everyone reading this that it is not wise little whisper and it should be ignored. This little whisper that is telling me that the success of others is going to stop me from succeeding and doing well and getting what I need is completely misleading and should be deliberately drowned out.
But why is it so important to ignore this whisper and be happy with the success of others?
- The first thing to keep in mind is that being associated with successful people is good for you. Whether you are a competitive sportsman or a part of a corporate team, being surrounded with successful and impressive people is good for you and it is something you should really value. Nothing is better for a professional sprinter than having an exceptionally fast opponent. The fast opponent will allow the sprinter to reach his full potential. Similarly in corporate teams, to have successful and impressive people as colleagues can help you raise your game and reach your full potential as a professional. The success of others then is clearly something that should be celebrated as an opportunity and not viewed as a threat.
- The second thing to keep in mind is that people really appreciate those who feel happy at their success. Think about how you feel when someone you know gets resentful and displeased when they hear about your success? What about the feeling when another person is absolutely delighted about your success. Won’t you appreciate and respect the person who celebrated your success rather than resented it? Won’t you also distrust the person who is displeased and resentful towards your success. You will not view them as your ally but rather as your enemy. This is natural because by resenting your success they are treating you as an enemy.
- The other thing that might also be worth thinking about is that generally the success of others brings about increased opportunity. Society today is the result of the brilliance of millions of individuals. For this reason we must great the success of others with hopeful curiosity to see what opportunities are going to be born out of their success. In fact we should try as much as we can to set up others to succeed as much as possible so that we can the brilliance that is uniquely theirs into the world.
So we see that the ability to celebrate the success of others might be difficult but is something we must try very hard to get good at. Celebrating the success of others brings out the best in us and helps us towards reaching our full potential. It is also essential for creating harmonious and healthy relationships. Being comfortable with the success of others is also essential for enabling us to foster and facilitate their brilliance in others which is what humanity requires to progress.