I sometimes catch myself thinking that someone else has all the luck. Perhaps it’s a famous sports figure or a movie star or someone whose YouTube video went viral. At those times, I have to admit, I envy their position, and feel jealous of their success.

The thing is that jealousy alone doesn’t ever help me forward. In fact, it puts me in a victim role — and I hate being a victim. So lately, when I feel a hit of jealousy coming on, I’m trying two things:

First, celebrate the other person’s success. If he or she can have it, so can I. There’s enough success to go around. And my success is uniquely my own.

Second, I can offset feelings of jealousy with actions that support my own success. So it may be that I invest in further training, or ask someone for advice about how I can move my own goals forward.

How about you? What’s your antidote to jealousy at work?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed; if it seems like you never get any traction on the projects that you truly care about, try hitting the pause button.

The next time someone insists that you take on a new task, ask for a moment to think about it. If you’re at your desk feeling pulled in ten directions, close all your files (paper and digital) for a minute. Hit the pause button, allow your brain to re-boot and discover its priorities.

Pause long enough to evaluate what efforts are worth your time and what can simply wait. “I don’t have time to pause,” you argue. Can you afford not to?

Try it.

Sometimes, you may expect something from someone at work, and their failure to deliver creates feelings of resentment.

It might involve something simple like your co-worker greeting you “hello” or your boss saying, “thank you,”

Or perhaps you rush to produce something for the team and no one acknowledges your effort.

Maybe you’re expecting a promotion or a raise, and when it doesn’t come, a big resentment bubbles up inside of you.

It’s fine to have expectations, but if you don’t communicate them to the people who count, you could just be baking resentments.

The next time you find yourself resenting another person at work, consider whether you had an expectation of that individual that he or she failed to fulfill. If so, you may own half of the resentment.

Have you ever met an older man or woman who is so bitter that everything that comes out of their mouths sounds nasty? Well that could be you (or me) in a few years.

Let’s face it, people do unkind things to each other and life can throw us curve balls, but if we allow those incidents to define our outlook on life then the unkind people win.

So I next time I run into you and we are several years older please don’t sound like an old bitter person.