So I went there a couple seconds ago and had myself a nice little look-see, and read this.
A few weeks ago I had dinner with a friend of mine named Brad Lomenick. He’s the Catalyst Conference guru and has been incredibly kind to me. Basically, every few months we get together and I ask him questions about leadership and changing culture and how not to completely fail at whatever it is God has going on with Stuff Christians Like.
Last time we met, he told me that one of the things I need to actively work on is “celebrating my rivals.” He said there are going to be people I’m jealous of and that jealousy is poison. He said a great way to work on that is to ask yourself, “How can I help this person win?”
I thought that was really good advice and I want to live that out today.
So below are four of the people I find myself jealous of. I want to tell you about them because they’re actually great people and hopefully you’ll go check out what they do. And then, I’d love to hear who you’re jealous of and if they’ve got a link or a blog or anything, tell us all about it. Help that person win.
And, again, I don't know why, but it struck me as an awesome idea, so I think I'm going to follow suit, if only because it's a Saturday night and I can tell by the jitters in my fingers that I'm going to be awake for a considerable bit longer.
1. Claire Marie
Friends since junior high, Claire and I have had a lot in common over the years. We both had older brothers who seemed to excel at a lot of things at an emotional time period when it was not convenient to have an older sibling who seemed to excel, we both enjoy arts of many varieties, and we had similar tastes in such things as television, books, and hobbies. We were both big fish in little ponds, so to speak, but from the onset I knew that Claire was the bigger fish, even in constantly expanding ponds. She's an artistic Midas to my mere gilder.
I kind of chuckle at the absurdity of it; why would I want to be better than her? Just today, I was reading a note she had written on facebook (I had written it first and tagged her in it, and as per tradition, she recopied and retagged like the good conformist these things make us) and I was laughing and smiling and thoroughly enjoying myself. Whenever I try to be witty and fun like she is naturally, I frustrate myself and am never fully happy with the result anyway. It's so much easier to sit back and watch her sprezzatura. So I definitely encourage you to do the same. She's going to be massively famous one day, so start fangirling now. It's what she would do if she were you.
I don't particularly like his books, but I've always been annoyed by the fact that he was in his teens when his first was published. His life was my dream for a long while (yes, I even had a short-lived aspiration to be home schooled, once upon a time) and I'm sure I'm not alone, but it really is impressive to be where he is when he is, and, from what I've heard, he's really come a long way, and, literarily speaking, any progress is a sign of excellence. So if you haven't read his books, you should not let a poorly made movie or over-zealous anti-fans (like myself, on occasion) stop you from at least forming your own opinion. Everyone's a critic.
Sadly, or maybe not, I can't think of two more people. Don't get me wrong, I'm an insanely jealous person and I struggle with my insecurities hourly, but past these two, my other jealousies are more general and have to be handled through internal struggles. For instance, I am immediately saddened by anyone who looks like they can fit into awesome clothes I'll never be able to pull off, and I feel more anxiety than awe towards contemporary writers who take my breath away, and I secretly hold unhealthy grudges against people who are excellent at things I enjoy, but choose not to do them because they think they're boring. All of these things have to do with my own self-image, which will forever be a battlefield, and there's nothing you girls can do about it.
EDIT:
Funny story. I follow my friend, CariMus on Twitter and have her updates auto-texted to my phone. I also have it set up so that I can text to Twitter and auto-update my status. However, Cari and I kind of had a conversation earlier about possibly getting together, so when I got the text of her status update from twitter, I thought it was a direct text to me. In short, I'm over-tired and should look at who I'm texting...
(P.S. If you're kind of lost and you don't understand how twitter works, try reading the updates from the bottom one to the top one. If that still doesn't work, I'm sorry; the humor's lost on you, but it was more of a laugh-at-me moment than a laugh-with-me one, and you weren't really missing out.)
