Are you jealous of other women?

You are a woman and you feel envy when you scroll through your social media feed and see another woman get a new job, go on a fancy vacation or brag about her amazing children?

You are envious of this other woman who just told you she got a contract to publish her first book......on a similar topic that you have been thinking to write about?

You just heard that yet another former colleague (a woman of course) is leaving her job to open up her own business?

Oh wait......the new manager you just hired is a new mom and seems to be having a hard time managing all the deadlines while having to take days off to care for her sick child. You remember how hard it was for you earlier in your career: no flexibility, no work from home options, why can't she get it together?

If you are a woman reading this, I am 100% sure you experienced these situations or variations of it not once in your life, but multiple times.

I certainly admit that I grew up to see other women as my competition. I am not quite sure why I was not looking at men the same way. In addition, I spent my entire career working with more women than men. Needless to say, I felt envy, jealousy and unnecessary competitiveness quite often. I judged other women much harsher than men and I had far higher expectations of them.

It took me a very long time to see these situations differently. Well, how differently?

I came to understand that every time I felt jealousy or envy, it was an indication that I wanted something the other woman had. And instead of thinking that if she had it, I could not have it, I learned about the abundance mindset.

What does that mean?

Instead of thinking that if someone has something it means I cannot have it because there isn't enough for both of us (that would be a scarcity mindset), I learned that if another woman can have or be the thing that made me jealous, it means that it is something possible. By seeing that possibility exist in real life, it made me understand that it could also exist in my life.

And so, instead of worrying that if she had it, I could not have it, I now use it to become aware of the following two things:

• It is something I desire

• It is possible

And so, it becomes my inspiration. Ever since I learned this, I practice it. And with each opportunity, I strengthen this muscle and become aware of possibilities I used to completely discard.

But it takes more to strengthen this. It takes action. And for me, that is verbalizing my admiration or encouragement for her. When I celebrate another woman, I immediately feel stronger.

Instead of feeling guilty or judging myself for being a bad person for feeling envy, I acknowledge her and I can immediately feel another example of possibility added to my awareness. Can I make this shift every single time unconsciously? Absolutely not. I am human and so are you.

It takes awareness, practice and action. I do it myself for my own growth and we do it together in my group coaching program. In fact, we will be tackling this very topic today.

I would love to hear what you think about this. Please comment below and send this post to a woman that inspires you. I know, it's hard to choose one only!