Envy is that feeling we can never quite shake off.

But we have this horrible affliction in our society to envy people for the most materialistic things and passing trends. It’s really just a marketing campaign to work against our insecurities.

We envy people for their possessions, their wealth, their physical appearance (I fall victim to this when I see friends of mine who still have full heads of hair) and their power.

It’s important to note that all power is fleeting. Just open any history book and all you get are stories of people gaining and losing power.

The rest is all just stuff. It comes, it goes and eventually our desires shift to other tastes, making it a moot point to even envy it in the first place.

What we should really envy is joy.

We need to envy the joy that other people have and desire that for ourselves. We need to latch onto it and do everything we can to figure out what is making that way so we can grasp it.

The great part about envying the joy of another person is joy is not limited to class, race, gender or geography. Literally every person on the planet, regardless of their circumstances, has the potential to be joyful.

Find someone in your circumstance who has true joy in their heart. Let them be your guide and stop at nothing to feel the way they do.

When you do so, then no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, you will be joyful… and others will envy you.