Envy/Emulate
This is a short story on some “E” words.
“Envy” is wanting what somebody else has and “Emulate” is an attempt to equal somebody or something.
One is a pure head trip; the other an excursion into fruitful action.
Envy implies that it’s only available to someone else, not you. This may cause you to dislike the person who has what you want. It will often cause some to try and take it away from another. Envy will always deliver a feeling of lack within you. It also sets up a carrot and stick mindset with you chasing what you cannot get for a lifetime.
Envy serves no purpose. It’s a self destructive poison that has no upside.
Enter emulation.
I don’t know where I first encountered the phrase but I remember having a profound shift when I read, “If you want what someone else has, don’t envy them; emulate them.”
That’s the day envy left my life. It’s rather freeing. It frees up energy to begin the process of emulation.
This is why mentoring is so helpful. When you find a mentor, you’re being tutored in replicating the steps they’ve taken to achieve similar results. Everyone has access to a mentor. They don’t even have to be living for you to benefit.
Successful people have recipes for success. Emulating them is a two step process:
- Find their recipe.
- Follow it.
In the case of notable people who have passed on, they most likely have left some literature behind. Autobiographies are chuck filled with tasty recipes. You may have to search a little harder if they haven’t spelled it out, but the recipe is there.
Others have written step-by-step books which outline precisely what they did to get what they got.
Here is a secret. All the recipes work; you just have to use them.
Here’s the secret to failure: Take shortcuts with the recipe.
Reminds me of a story . . .
Many years ago I was hired to consult a radio station that had very talented, yet undisciplined, personalities. There was no formula in place for success. It was like a football team where each player had a different playbook. My job was to institute a recipe that put people on the same page and get the most out of their talent level.
It was met with a lot of resistance. Highly talented, highly compensated people were miffed that I was asking them to do basic stuff. My explanation was: “Show me that you can do this and then we’ll expand to the next level.” It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to do what I was asking; they had just forgotten that it was necessary. They were leaving basic ingredients out of the recipe and the cake was flat.
There are no shortcuts to success yet emulation will get you there quicker.
Don’t envy a recipe book – use it. Find one that’s appealing to you and follow it to the letter. Once you become adept at automating the basics, then you can improvise and make life even tastier for you and those who follow in your footsteps.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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