When I was younger I used to look at various celebrities and envy how beautiful they were and how much money they had.

When I look at famous actors like Johnny Depp, Leornado Di Caprio and Helena Bonham Carter (they’re just my favourites) and musicians like Dave Matthews, Lorde and Bob Marley (just to name a few), and of course, Yoga teachers like Ana Forrest, Daniel Scott, Sinhee Ye McCabe and Duncan Wong, I am enveloped with a new kind of envy.

I have a serious case of talent envy.

These people, of course, have a lot more financial freedom than I have, but that is not why I am jealous. I am jealous because they are creators, gifted in creativity, healing and doing. Now, as a Yoga teacher, I have been taught and try to practice being accepting of where I am and, essentially, not be jealous of other people’s success, but being a Yoga teacher does not make me any less human and I do get jealous from time to time.

So how does one go about using that jealousy, envy or desire to become great and channel it into actually becoming great?

I think the answer lies in inspiration—trying new things and failing. Eventually, there will be that one thing that we try that will help us soar. Drawing from these inspirational people and generating energy from that inspiration and turning it into hard work and dedication to your own efforts, whether or not they fail.

After quite an extensive period of feeling unmotivated and inspiration-less, I have been playing with these beautiful things that I see and feel by putting them into my personal Yoga practice. I have been dancing to the music I listen to in the middle of my practice and just allow these ideas to fuel my movement.

And not surprising, I’ve started designing and practicing these gorgeous Yoga sequences that I absolutely love to practice and have so much fun doing!

The second thing I discovered is that the envy or jealousy is, as to be expected, directly related to fear. For me, it is the fear of not finding or stumbling across that thing that makes me extraordinary. When I look at these inspirational people I see their extraordinary abilities and talents and after getting over the awe, feel as if they also have the added ability of making me feel, well, extraordinarily ordinary.

So how does one get over the fear of remaining terrifyingly ordinary and boring for the rest of ones life and very dramatically retreating into the cave of self-pity? What I’m going to do is keep trying new things every day, because whether I turn out to be extraordinary to millions of other people or not, I have the opportunity of being extraordinary within myself.

I have the opportunity every day when I wake up to do something that to me is extraordinary, and I am the only person losing out if I don’t.

What kick-started this realization? Why, Ana Forrest of course. I was listening to an interview that she did for YogaU. When she said, “Stop being a passive, lazy asshole and create it. Build on it from there.” I sat up and thought to myself, that’s exactly what you have been doing. You have been feeling sorry for yourself and essentially paralyzing yourself.

I’ve made a Warriors choice to stop being lazy, stop feeling sorry for myself and to stop taking everything so seriously. I’ve decided to have some fun in exploration.

So here’s to everyone finding their own extraordinary!

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Apprentice Editor: Dana Gornall/Editor:Renée Picard

Photo credit: Ares Nguyen/Flickr