The Uses of Envy — Transcript

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1. 0:00From a young age we're talked it's a terrible thing, so when we feel it
2. 0:10As we all do, we're inclined not to examine it. We just feel ashamed and guilty.
3. 0:18But that's a pity. Because envy, like fear, is an important emotion that exists in all of
4. 0:25us for some good reasons.
5. 0:29It's there to help us know what we want.
6. 0:32It's a call to action that should be heeded containing garbled but important
7. 0:40messages about what we should be doing with the rest of our lives. If we can get
8. 0:45past the humiliation of envious feelings we can start to see them as a set of
9. 0:50clues about what we might do next.
10. 0:53We should study and maybe even record on paper the situation and people that make
11. 1:00us envious. We might learn to keep an envy diary, it will contain a fragment of a
12. 1:06future self trying to break through. We often forget that the things we admire
13. 1:13don't just belong to one specific very attractive life.
14. 1:19They can be pursued in lesser, weaker, but still very real doses in countless
15. 1:26other places.
16. 1:27Opening up the possibility of creating many smaller, more manageable and more
17. 1:32realistic versions of the lives we are drawn to. Let's no longer just think
18. 1:38we're bad people just for envying. Let's do something far more productive, become
19. 1:45diligent and careful students of our most persistent envious feelings.
20. 1:52They're trying to tell us something, and we should listen.