E: Envy

E:  Thou shalt not envy.  I think one of the things that comes with maturity is the learned behavior of not wasting energy on useless emotions.  Envy, jealousy is an uglier word for it, is one of the most useless of time drains. 

I wish my blog had a thousand followers. I know bloggers who have that many readers but I also know they reached that summit by hard work.  I try to learn from them. 

I met my first critique partner at my very first writing conference.  Since then, she's become a very successful multi-published author.  She's very successful and if often now asked to be on author panels at writer conferences similar to that one we met at as newbies.  I'm very happy for her and buy all her books.

Another friend of mine writes fantasy though his is darker than mine.  He has a great agent and a contract for multiple books with a publisher I would love to work with.  His writing is great.  I read his book and try to learn what works in them and how I can improve my own fantasy novels. 

It's important not to worry about the competition except to use them to learn from.  Concentrate on the page in front of you, the one you're writing.  Don't concern yourself with what you perceive as lucky breaks coming to others and skipping over you.  Envy is a wasted emotion and can only bring down your own enthusiasm.

Do you fight envy? Have you had someone act jealous of your position or your success?