On Jealousy

The #1 thing that helps me deal with jealousy—when I get jealous of someone because they do more revenue, have more money, are more fit, spend more time reading (yup, I get jealous of this 😂), are more funny than me—is a Naval quote:

"When you’re jealous of someone, you can't just cherry-pick and choose little aspects of their life. You can't say I want his body, I want her money, I want his personality. You have to BE that person. Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100% swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous."

So whenever I get jealous, I ask myself: "If I couldn't just get their revenue or good looks—the thing I'm jealous of—but I'd had to switch lives with that person and become them, would I still want that?"

So far, in 100% of cases, the answer has always been "no". Once I go through that little mental exercise, the jealousy goes away.

Part of the reason I created the Reminders App is so that little quotes and, well, reminders, like this one, easily come to mind in the moments I need them to come to mind.