When someone gives you advice, they are mostly describing themselves — their regrets, values, and the particular topology of their success. Learning to read advice this way doesn't make you cynical. It makes you a better filter.
We've been taught that envy is a character flaw to suppress. It isn't. Envy is one of the most precise signals your psychology produces — a direct readout of what you want and what you believe is possible. Suppressing it doesn't make you virtuous. It makes you less informed.
Confidence is not the ingredient separating high performers from everyone else. Calibration is. And building calibration requires almost the opposite of what the confidence industry prescribes.