If you take such pleasure in other people’s failures that, in the heat of schadenfreude, you forget about your own achievements — which, in the grand scheme of things, mean even less to you than relishing other people’s failures — then this is a clear sign that your feelings are far from constructive. On the other hand, if someone else’s success easily distracts you from your own goals and, instead of achieving them, you immerse yourself in thoughts of other people’s achievements, secretly wishing for their failure, then this is a second warning sign.

If, instead of getting closer to people who have achieved certain heights in your field of interest, you try with all your might to avoid not only approaching them but also obtaining any information about their successes — because all this information causes you noticeable emotional pain — then this is warning sign number three.

Well, if you feel a wild desire to devalue any achievements of others as much as possible, either privately or publicly declaring the triumphant person unworthy of their success, while secretly wishing not so much to achieve something similar yourself but for the other person to lose everything they have achieved so successfully, then this, as you have probably already understood, is warning sign number four.

The fifth bell is when you compare yourself to others with enviable regularity, stubbornly searching for the worst in yourself and the best in others, losing touch with reality in all these painful comparisons, and repeatedly confirming your own insignificance and inadequacy through the recognition of others.

And the ‘cherry on top’ is the unconscious imitation of the object of envy, when attempts to repeat someone else’s success over and over again automatically knock you off your own unique path. In this case, you not only lose your individuality but also fall into the abyss of an endless pursuit of false idols, personally condemning yourself to a lifetime of empty and meaningless copying.

Doesn’t sound very encouraging, does it? So, let us try to find the strength within ourselves to identify any of the above, sincerely admit it to ourselves, and then redirect our attention away from others — whether their failures or successes — towards finding our own personal path. And if the vector of your movement through life is already defined, then focus on the path to your cherished goal itself.