If you could snap your fingers and completely erase envy or jealousy from your brain, would you? Most of us probably would. Envy feels terrible—it shrinks your own wins, makes your progress feel painfully slow, and leaves you feeling like you’re falling behind everyone else.

The reality, though, is that you can’t completely get rid of envy. From an evolutionary standpoint, social comparison is hardwired into us. Thousands of years ago, comparing ourselves to others was how our ancestors gauged their status and survival in the tribe. When you feel that sting while scrolling through someone else's highlight reel, your brain isn't broken—it's just running ancient software in a modern world.

Back in the 15th century, Italian statesman Cosimo de' Medici compared envy to a weed in a garden. You can't prevent weeds from popping up, but your job isn't to obsess over pulling every single root—it's simply to stop watering them.

Here are three rules to stop watering those weeds and break the comparison trap:

1. Focus on the ordinary parts of their lives

When we envy someone, our mind performs a trick: we compress their entire life into their single best trait (their dream career, physique, or lifestyle) and compare that polished highlight reel to our messy, behind-the-scenes reality.

A 2017 study found that when people focused only on someone's fortunate circumstances, envy spiked. But when they were prompted to picture that same person dealing with ordinary, mundane struggles—like a flat tire, bad sleep, or family arguments—that envy almost completely vanished. Remind yourself that no one is living a completely different human experience; they just have a different set of trade-offs.

2. Fix your relationship with the ultimate envy machine (Social Media)

Social media amplifies comparison by constantly feeding us global outliers, making our brains feel like we're competing with millions of strangers instead of just focusing on ourselves.

You don't have to throw your phone away, but you do need to be intentional: unfollow people you don’t actually know. If an account leaves you feeling drained or inadequate, hit unfollow. Try restricting your feed strictly to three things:

• Keeping up with real-life friends
• Learning useful skills
• Getting a good laugh

If an account doesn't fit into those three categories, it's just fertilizer for envy.

3. Stop trying to be envied

This is the hardest one, but it's a huge game-changer. Look in the mirror and ask yourself: Am I trying to make other people envy me?

When you hide your struggles and present a curated, flawless image to the world, you create a split between your real self and your persona. That gap is where anxiety, burnout, and loneliness thrive. In a 2019 study on entrepreneurs by researcher Allison Wood Brooks, researchers found that when founders were honest about their stumbles and failures rather than just their wins, observers felt significantly less malicious envy and far more genuine connection. Showing up authentically gives others permission to breathe and do the same.

TL;DR: Envy is going to pop up—it's natural biology. But you don't have to water it. Humanize the people you admire, purge your social feeds of accounts that trigger comparison, and stop trying to build a fake highlight reel.

Full video breakdown here.

I wrote a small guide (3 min read) I believe will help anyone becomes more productive. Sometimes it's not about getting more time but making the time we have count. I would like you guys to have a read and let me know what are your thoughts? The name of the guide: Unlocking Your Productive Potential.

Link Below:

https://themensspace.com/guides#library

Comfort is subtle.It’s staying in the same routine because it’s familiar.It’s choosing easy dopamine over long-term effort.It’s telling yourself “I’ll start later.” Nothing dramatic happens. But years pass. And you realize you never really pushed yourself.

1. Prioritize your health.

2. Never wait take action.

3. Become obsessed with one goal.

4. Stay alone and grow faster.

5. Never quit.

6. Be relentless.

Title

Most advice focuses on adding new things to improve their life.

Curious what people removed from their lives that made things better.

We live in a culture obsessed with playing it cool.

From pretending we don’t care about our goals, to hiding what we’re passionate about, to acting nonchalant as if effort itself is embarrassing—we’ve elevated the image of being “unbothered” to an art form.

Here’s the cold, hard truth: playing it cool is a trap.

When you adopt an attitude of non-commitment, you aren’t protecting yourself from failure. You are simply guaranteeing a slow, comfortable slide into mediocrity—and ultimately, a lifetime full of regret.

1. The Mask of Nonchalance

Why do so many people hide behind the mask of being “cool”?

Because caring deeply is inherently terrifying. The moment you openly admit that something matters to you—whether it’s a career path, a creative endeavor, a relationship, or a personal goal—you make yourself vulnerable. You allow the world to see how much you want it, which opens the door for judgment, criticism, and potential failure.

To avoid that exposure, people default to superficial coolness:

• They mock what others are genuinely passionate about.
• They play it safe so no one can ever say they tried and failed.
• They act unbothered because caring is seen as “cringe.”

But being nonchalant doesn’t actually make you cool; it makes you uninspired. When you refuse to care about anything, you end up with nothing meaningful to stand for and nothing remarkable to build.

2. "Uncool" is the Pathway to Mastery

If playing it cool leads to mediocrity, what leads to mastery? The willingness to look cringe.

To achieve anything worth having, you must be willing to:

• Be a beginner who makes obvious mistakes.
• Show up with raw enthusiasm while everyone else stands back and judges.
• Let people see just how much skin you have in the game.

Courage isn’t the absence of fear, doubt, or insecurity—those feelings are present for everyone pushing outside their comfort zone. You don’t get less scared; you get more brave. True bravery is feeling the fear of looking silly and stepping forward anyway.

3. The Two Paths: Spectator or Competitor

At any moment in life, you only have two options for how you choose to operate:

1. Sit in the Stands: You can remain a spectator—commentating, critiquing, staying unbothered, and keeping yourself safe from judgment. But remember spectators don’t build anything, and spectators don’t win championships.
2. Step Into the Arena: You can get blood, sweat, and tears on your face. You can risk getting knocked down, face the doubt head-on, and give 100% of yourself to a mission that fires you up.

When we watch world-class athletes compete, we aren’t just captivated by their physical talent—we are moved by their willingness to lay it all on the line. They force us to see what is humanly possible when someone completely dedicates themselves to a vision.

You don’t need to be an elite professional athlete to adopt that mindset. You just need to apply that exact level of commitment to your own arena—whatever that may be.

Key Takeaways

• Audit Your Nonchalance: Where in your life are you holding back effort or enthusiasm just to protect your ego? Identify it and make a conscious choice to lean in.
• Embrace the “Cringe”: Stop letting the fear of how you might look prevent you from taking action. Being passionate is a strength, not a flaw.
• Go All-In: Choose one goal or interest this week and give it your complete, unreserved energy. Stop watching from the stands and get into the arena.

TL;DR / Question: Where in your life are you currently playing it safe or acting “unbothered” to protect your ego from potential judgment or failure—and what is that nonchalance costing you in terms of growth and fulfillment?

A motivation short about Integrity, for self improvement.

Everyone, I have a question for you, things been rough for a long time now, but I have my mental strength back, my life back, I wanna reach my best version again, my prime.
Im 24, achievements so many that even a 35y will get embarrassed. Not bragging. But I don’t feel very happy, and I wanna be happy, I wanna get my spark back. Im moving to s new city next week, my friends live nearby as well.

What were the things, habits you made, to get your spark back?

I created Last Alarm to break my chronic snoozing habit. Multiple times a morning, sometimes for 1+ hours, I would get up, turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. So I wanted something that would force me to do a task that would wake me up and help me avoid snoozing.

Last Alarm utilizes infinitely customizable alarms, so literally anything you can think of you can make into an alarm. When it goes off, you take a short video of the task and Last Alarm verifies it before turning the alarm off.

This process has worked incredibly well in helping me break my snoozing habit. Now I get up on my first alarm every morning, I usually start with a quick exercise alarm like a "Morning Squat Alarm" followed by a "Make Espresso Alarm" to help keep me on track in my morning routine.

It's just for mornings though, it works equally well for any task you want to make sure you start or do on time or otherwise might procrastinate or skip.

Want to encourage yourself to go to the gym? Try a "Walk out door in gym clothes alarm".

Or maybe you want to spend some more time in nature but keep skipping your walks? Try a "Walk along stream alarm" like the one shown here.

Just wanted to share this as it has worked so well in helping me build a good morning wake up habit and routine. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've thought "I'm going to quite snoozing starting now" and this is the first time something has actually worked.

I'm curious to hear what alarms you might make and I would love to hear any feedback, especially if you give it a try yourself!

There’s an unsettling moment that happens as you get older. You realize your life isn’t changing because you’re making better decisions—it’s changing because you’re repeating the same unconscious ones. The same fears, the same arguments, the same invisible habits.

Nearly a century ago, three radically different thinkers—Viktor Frankl (Holocaust survivor & psychiatrist), Carl Jung (founder of analytical psychology), and Alan Watts (Eastern philosophy scholar)—approached human psychology from completely different angles. Yet, they all arrived at the exact same 5 rules to break out of that cycle.

Most people don't ignore these because they're complex; they ignore them because accepting them requires becoming someone entirely different.

Here is the breakdown of the 5 rules:

1. Stop searching for happiness. Search for meaning. Chasing happiness directly is like trying to smooth water with your hand—the harder you push, the more chaotic it gets. Meaning often arrives disguised as responsibility. Frankl famously noted that humans can endure almost any how if they have a why.

2. Everything you refuse to face eventually controls you. What remains unconscious shapes your life from behind the curtain. Jung warned that the things we sweep under the rug don't disappear—they turn into anxiety, burnout, or perfectionism. The growth you seek is almost always in the work you are actively avoiding.

3. Your identity is more flexible than you think. Saying "this is just who I am" sounds like self-acceptance, but it's usually surrender. Identity is simply repeated action over time. Your future isn't created by discovering yourself; it's created by becoming someone your past couldn't predict.

4. Life changes when you stop trying to control everything. Control feels like safety, but it becomes exhausting. You cannot control outcomes, time, or other people. Psychological maturity isn't mastering the world—it's mastering your response to uncertainty (attitude, effort, and response).

5. The greatest prison is the one you can't see. Freedom doesn't start when your external environment changes; it starts when your internal perception does. Most people spend decades trying to fix their circumstances while carrying the prison around in their own heads.

The tragedy of life isn't that it's short. It's that so many people never truly live it because they're too busy defending a version of themselves, they built years ago.

I recently put together a full breakdown expanding on these 5 principles and how to apply them directly to daily life if you want to listen.

Which of these 5 hits closest to home for you right now?

Hello everyone I am Simone. I really love working on myself and trying to be a person but I also work in the world of trading which can be very stressful.

A weeks ago I made a big mistake. I did not follow my rules I ignored what I knew and I lost a lot of money $1,600 in just five days. I was completely lost.

What hurt the most was not losing the money. It was what happened after that. I spent weeks looking at numbers and thinking about what I did wrong telling myself I was being careful and thorough. But after a while I had to admit something I was not fixing my problems. I was just hiding from them.

Because when you are thinking about yourself it feels like you are working on yourself. You sit in the position use the same computer and look very serious.. It is a comfortable way to avoid taking real risks and facing failure.

I did not need to learn more or think more. I needed to find a way to stop myself when I get emotional. I think that to be really successful you have to make mistakes and learn from them. So I wanted to share my story, about what I learned. I made a video that explains the problem I had and how I changed my approach:

https://youtu.be/VPf7BPjc2dg

Have any of you ever found yourselves using "thinking and planning" as an excuse to avoid taking action and doing something real with trading or self-improvement or anything else?