People who are mature, confident, and genuinely happy never compare their successes and achievements with those of others. Instead of focusing on how other people live their lives, they focus on self-growth. They live their lives investing significant amounts of time and energy in improving themselves, pursuing their goals, and becoming a better version of themselves.
Individuals who undoubtedly don’t fall into this category of people are narcissists. Narcissists perceive your talents, successes, achievements, and happiness as a threat to their delusions of grandeur and sense of superiority. Your happiness and success remind them of what they lack themselves and this arouses envy in them. That’s the reason why a narcissist will do everything in their power to undermine your successes and joy.
Unlike normal, healthy people, narcissistic individuals don’t have enough empathy and security to feel happiness for other people and witness someone else fulfilling their goals and dreams, climbing the social ladder, and being satisfied with their life. Because anything you achieve or get joy out of arouses extreme envy in them and makes them feel a desperate need to compete with you and one-up you at all costs.
So, if you want to save yourself from the envy and contempt narcissists feel for anyone that they perceive as a threat to their delusions of grandeur, make sure you know the following signs of envy in narcissistic individuals.
Here they are:
1. They shower you with compliments for your accomplishments and successes initially. Thanks to your successes, achievements, and accomplishments, they gain status and prestige from just being associated with you. They act like they’re immensely happy for having the “successful boyfriend” or “successful girlfriend” while hating you for it simultaneously.
2. They often compete with you. When you bring up your achievements and successes, they immediately start looking for ways to undermine what you have achieved in order to make it appear as if it’s not a big deal and make you feel incompetent. They look for ways to make you feel like nothing you do is ever good enough.
3. They try to make you look like you’re the competitive and arrogant one. Should you happen to share your joy with them or show healthy confidence in your abilities and talents, they’ll be quick to accuse you of being competitive, conceited, and arrogant.
4. They devalue the things they once praised in order to make them appear meaningless since they’re aware that they would’ve never been able to achieve those things themselves. By downgrading your achievements and talents, they make themselves feel and look better than and superior to you.
5. They sabotage significant events in your life, such as projects, interviews, and deadlines, by casting doubt on your talents and abilities, consuming your time, and making you feel like you’re incompetent and incapable of doing anything right in life. In this way, they boost their own fragile ego and stroke their false sense of superiority.
