Being envious isn't always bad

Coming from an extended and poor family I had to leave my family and live with my aunt to ensure I will graduate from college. One of the important perspective I learned from her is that "hindi masamang maingit (it's not bad to be envious), if you will use it as your motivation to achieve the same fortune or success. You just have to ensure that in your way of achieving success, you wont hurt or step unto someone nor even wish him or her misfortune"...I remembered it so well and it's one of the important BIT in my memory.

I'm convinced she's right and the information from wikipedia has an explanation to it :)

Quoting from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envy - "Bertrand Russell said envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness.[2] Not only is the envious person rendered unhappy by his envy, but they also wish to inflict misfortune on others. Although envy is generally seen as something negative, Russell also believed that envy was a driving force behind the movement towards democracy and must be endured to achieve a more just social system.[3] However, psychologists have recently suggested that there may be two types of envy: malicious envy and benign envy - benign envy being proposed as a type of positive motivational force.[4][5]"

As such, even a word or behavior is generally identified as negative, we can still do something to change it based on our perspective. It's like turning a weakness into strength. Think positive and have a pleasant day ahead :)