A little touch of green.

Envy has to be one of the most destructive and vindictive emotions. It will eat you from the inside out and turn you into a scarred, pitiful wreck of negative energy and dislike. The simple fact is that if you live your entire life trying to be better than someone else, attempting to outlive them and basing your success on their failures you will never really amount to much. If Mr Bolt was to vanish today would it suddenly make every other sprinter a better athlete? Would every golfer the world over have their performance improve if Tiger Woods was to take up market gardening instead? The only person responsible for your success is you.

I wrote last time about Bill Bryson and how I admire some of the qualities of his writing. Now there is nothing wrong with seeking to emulate and internalise qualities that you see in another person that will aid you in your success. I am already trying to incorporate some of the lessons I’ve learnt from his writing, but for me to start trying to better Mr Bryson, to beat him at his own game, to write better than him, to copy him exactly and base my whole life on that would be foolish and self destructive. The world does not need another Bill Bryson or another Tiger Woods. The world doesn’t need another Mother Teresa or another version of your neighbour. What the world needs is you and the uniqueness that you bring into it.