From Leah Cypess, author of http://www.amazon.com/Mistwood-Leah-Cypess/dp/B004F9OV5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328889665&sr=8-1, which is on my TBR pile. Or maybe still on my wishlist, which is, however, merely a long distance extension of my TBR pile. I see she has a second book out, too.
Anyway!
Like Leah, I don’t think I was generally very jealous of other’s accomplishments when I was growing up. I mean, maybe I’m not remembering clearly, but I don’t think so. But it is more of an issue for me as a writer.
Leah says:
[Y]ou are always hearing about other peoples’ good news. About books hitting the NYT bestseller list, receiving awards, getting on state lists or indie lists or ALA lists. And even when I like the author and/or love the book, I noticed a little twinge each time, a tiny voice whispering, “Why not my book?”
And of course I have received awards and got on the ALA list and that’s very nice and I do a little happy dance every time I get another notice about something like that. But that also does make me value the NYT bestseller list more than the ALA list, because that’s the mountain not yet climbed. And why is ISLANDS not next to THE HUNGER GAMES in Walmart, huh? How about that?
Leah talks about what works for her in combating jealousy. Me, I just make a point of being sincerely happy for other writers’ success, just as I strive to be sincerely happy when somebody else’s dog finishes a championship. (Well, at least as long as the book — and the dog — deserves its win.)
I really do think being actually sincerely happy for someone else is one emotional response that is pretty firmly under your conscious control, or should be, and it’s not even that hard. It’s not like I want to see THE HUNGER GAMES disappear from Walmart shelves, right? It totally deserves to be up there. I just want my books up there with it.
Anyway! Click through if you have a minute, and read the whole thing.
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Oh, and to make a more substantive comment: I’m not sure that cultivating sincere happiness for other people’s successes/blessings is as easy as all that — but I’m quite sure that it’s worth the effort. Jealousy (envy, I would say, though there’s a different shade of meaning) leads to misery as surely as anything I know.
Whoops! Now there is.