We’ve all had to deal with workplace jealousy. Someone else sees what you’re doing and wants to steal your idea, have your success, or simply get to where you are without working at it. Or maybe you’re the jealous one–striving to be like someone else or fuming at someone else’s success? Whichever way it is for you, here are some ideas that may give you a fresh perspective.

Flaws, failures and finger-pointing

When a jealous person sees your success, he or she may point at your flaws and try to highlight them to others, thus undermining your success. He may also try to focus on your failures. This kind of finger pointing never helps to sort out the jealousy of the person who is jealous. While it’s difficult to remain positive when you hear the jealous person belittling you, it’s important to take the high road and not return insults. Eventually, other coworkers may come around to your point of view. I’ve talked about how some social media posts elicit jealousy before in Maslow’s Unbelievably Strange Hierarchy of Social Media Needs.

Workplace jealousy creates a toxic environment

Although you might want to hide your head in the sand when you recognize jealousy, doing so won’t make the problem disappear. In fact, when you pull your head out of the sand, the problem probably will have gotten worse. It’s best to deal with jealousy head on. Indeed has a good article on how to handle workplace jealousy: 8 Tips to Help You Handle Workplace Jealousy. I like this one: “Remain positive at all times, even around jealous coworkers.” Not so easy to do, though, is it?

Belittling others, name calling, and talking behind others’ backs

If someone else is jealous of you, it’s much more difficult to deal with than if you’re the jealous one. But you can start by asking the jealous person what’s going on. Maybe there’s something they need to get off their chest. In her Psychology Today article How to Handle a Jealous Coworker, Kaja Perina says Sometimes, a coworker’s negative behavior toward you may have nothing to do with you or with your work performance. And knowing that can make all the difference.

Moving past jealousy

The best way to move past jealousy, in my opinion, is not to compare yourself to others. There will always be others more or less successful than you. Another way to get through it is to journal. Ask yourself these questions: What is making you jealous? Is the person you’re jealous of honestly doing better than you, or is it imagined? What exactly is it that is bothering you? If you can figure out the answers to these questions, you’ll be closer to getting through the jealousy. And be honest. Maybe you need more skills so you can be like that other person in their career. Maybe there’s a class or two you could take to uplevel your skills.

Have you ever had to deal with jealousy in the workplace? How did you do it?

Recently while researching the topic of seniors and the use of technology for #digiblogchat, a chat that @LazBlazter and I host on Twitter, a number of interesting topics came up. Here are some of the spinoffs from that chat.

Featured Guest Warren Naida

The questions for our recent #digiblogchat are already published, by the way. Our featured guest for the chat was @WarrenLNaida. Since the chat ended, Warren has also published a blog post, which you can find here: We Need to Have a Different Conversation about Seniors and Technology. Warren:”Who is a “senior” and who is not? Our access to technology is dependent on other demographics than age. Usually it’s about money and education. The country and city in which we live. Our schools. Our jobs. Access to the internet.” And if you don’t already know Warren Naida, then you should know that he’s already a successful author, teacher, and SEO expert. By his own admission, he’s not yet eligible for senior discounts in his home country, Germany. But his kid would say he’s ancient!

Jim Katzaman’s Take on the Chat

We are all interested in hearing who gets what from our chats. @JimKatzaman outlined several items, each of which could be a chat all by itself. Jim’s article is here: Seniors Find Tech More to Their Liking in Today’s World. For instance, we talked about cybersecurity, which is an issue for people of all ages, not just seniors (whatever that word means any more). And during the pandemic many people experienced loneliness and isolation. So turning to the use of technology was and still is a great way to meet like-minded people. Virtual Meetups (through Zooms or Facetimes) are just one way people can connect with others, but this requires some ease with technology. During the beginning of the pandemic, we all saw people struggle with new technology on zooms.

Exploring and doing the research for the chat

Before most #digiblogchat chats, I do some research, and this was no exception. A number of people weighed in, as usual (you can see more specific ideas from Jim’s or Warren’s links, above). What I found most interesting was getting to know more about Ashton Applewhite. Applewhite has written a manifesto on ageism called This Chair Rocks. She’s also been been featured on TED Talks. Applewhite makes a number of statements on her website which might surprise you. For instance “People are happiest at the beginnings and the ends of their lives.” And “Only 2.5% of Americans over 65 live in nursing homes.” And while reading about Applewhite, I found an entire mountain of information about aging, such as the website Old School, and their section of Books and Blogs.

Ageism works both ways

Although we might think of ageism as something that only affects older folks, younger people suffer from discrimination, too. Think back to a time when someone told you you were too young for an activity. That might’ve been simply going to an amusement park, but it could also apply to driving a car or operating machinery.

Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. If you’ve ever felt like a fraud before, you’re certainly not alone. Many of us feel like fraudsters, despite multiple degrees, years of job experience, and badges saying we’re number one! Not literally, but you get my drift. If this is you, you might like this post. By the way, we talked about Imposter Syndrome this week on #Digiblogchat–a collaborative chat on Twitter. We talked with Teodora Pirciu, and you can find her on Medium. Wikipedia has a few more words to say about this syndrome.

Just a Few Words about the Absolutely Dreaded Imposter Syndrome| Image by Sumanley xulx from Pixabay

Have you ever stopped to think about the gamification of your life? What if you could take all the ordinary daily chores you do and make them more fun? You’d constantly be earning badges, learning things about yourself, and competing–maybe against others, but maybe against yourself. What would that look like? Stick around, and hear my thoughts. And I’d love if you would add your thoughts, too. By the way, I’ve written about gamification before: the Gamification of Social Media. (Yes, that was back in the day, so to speak!)

Definition of Gamification

We do need some stinkin’ badges!

Remember when Clint Eastwood said he didn’t need no stinkin’ badges? Obviously he wasn’t thinking about gamification or he never would’ve said that. These days, Clint would earn badges for shooting people, and he’d get extra bonus points for saying that he got that quote from Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees! You can read about the history of that line and its misquotes here: This Day in Quotes: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges.

Points count in the gamification of your life

What kinds of activities earn you points? How about eating the right foods? Losing weight? Breathing and staying alive? lol Seriously, are there areas of your life that are so boring that maybe gamification would help you keep your interest? Maybe the gamification of your life would help you stay on track, especially for people who have difficulties with focus. Or maybe gamification would help you remember if you fed the cat or took out the garbage.

The Gamification of Your Life| Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

The Gamification of your life on #DigiBlogChat

This week on #digiblogchat, we discussed gamification, with Larry Mount (@lazblazter) contributing half the questions. By the way, if you’ve never participated in our chat, here’s how: How to Join#Digiblogchat. Here’s a poll, below, on people’s favorite ways to gamify their lives (Exercise was winning 4 hours before the poll was over).

Gamification of Your Life on #Digiblogchat

People use gamification in simple ways to the more complex. John W. Lewis (@JohnWLewis) said “Ironing is something that I did gamify, for a while some years ago. I used to hate, and put off, ironing the 5 shirts per week that I needed. I realised that it was because I didn’t know how long it would take. So I timed myself and then did it against the clock.”

Benefits of Gamification

Thiam (@ThiamMeka2Gogue) mentioned that “Any good gamification process can be a source of emotions for players: a sense of belonging, satisfaction, optimism, desire to improve and/or confidence.”

What activities would you like to gamify?

There are so many activities that could help me, and maybe you, too. One that I’d like to gamify is brushing my teeth. My dentist would also be very interested in this idea. As of right now, I keep track on an Excel spreadsheet, and then bring the sheet into my dentist whenever I get my routine cleanings done. Then we nerd out together over what’s worked and what hasn’t. She particularly likes all the stickers I use!

How do you blog when you don’t feel like it? Summer’s almost here and all the kids are getting out of school. Everything is slowing down and the weather’s warming up. So how do you get yourself motivated when you just don’t wanna? Here are some ideas for you.

Put the seat of your pants in the seat of your chair

This is my best advice. Many times I don’t want to write anything, but sitting down and writing gets me in the mood to write more. Getting started is often the best idea. Set a small goal, like 15 minutes (or 10 or 5!) to get started. Then give yourself a reward. I like Halo Top ice cream. You might like it, too.

Revisit an old idea to blog when you don’t feel like it

Was there an idea you had that never really gelled? Maybe now you can go back and see where it leads. That article you wrote about Albert Einstein? Try it out now! You could even take two old ideas and combine them. Albert Einstein + SEO? Yes, please!

Finish something you started

Did you have a half-baked idea, but you got interrupted and forgot all about it? Now could be a good time to start that article or blog post. Of course, brainstorming topics is always helpful and can give you tons of topic ideas. Here’s an article you might like about brainstorming: Best Ways to Better Brainstorming.

Blogging When You Don’t Feel Like it: Ten Ideas | Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

Do a compilation or “best of” post

Many YouTube channels do a monthly or yearly roundup. Sometimes the compilations are better than wading through all the actual videos. You could do the same with your articles. Of course, put links into your compilation post so people can go and read the longer versions. This is a really easy way to blog when you don’t feel like it. By the way, here are some more ideas about blogging in case these aren’t enough: How to Find Ten Blog Post Ideas in One Hour That Will Make You Feel Relaxed. Feeling more relaxed yet?

Get back to basics when you don’t feel like blogging

What are the things you enjoy writing about? What did you tell yourself you’d write about when you started blogging? Go back to those. Go back to the very first articles you wrote and your favorites. Write more about those topics. Maybe you’ve strayed from your original concepts.

Find inspiration with a friend’s writing

For my last blog post, I wrote about my reaction to someone else’s post. You could do the same. Write a response to this post, or to a friend’s article (and be sure to link to their article, too!).

Do some automatic writing

And by automatic writing, I don’t mean that you enter a trance or anything like that. More that you turn off the conscious part of your brain and write without judging yourself. So definitely no editing when you’re writing that new post.

Choose something lighter than usual

Not every blog post or article has to be amazing! Why not write something out of the ordinary for you? After all, it’s the end of the school year and people are having parties and getting ready for summer. Maybe a roundup of your favorite recipes or something similar. Sometimes off-topic ideas get more traction than your regular fare.

Rewrite a post that didn’t get traction

Sometimes a post just doesn’t land correctly. Why not rewrite it? You could add a couple more links and also some images to make it more interesting.

Interview someone you admire

An interview helps you and the person you’re interviewing, too. Your readers might want to hear about someone they don’t know. Who do you think your readers would like to know more about? Putting the focus on someone else is a great way to blog when you don’t feel like it. And if you want to hear some good interviews, may I suggest Rod & Inci Jones’ excellent Thought Row Podcast? They interview people about their creative endeavors.