How to deal with finding someone further ahead than you (gah!)

Here’s how it goes sometimes:
 
You have an idea for a venture, or a business, or a dream you want to accomplish.
 
You plan it, and plot it, and it seems to be going well.

You’re very excited.
 
You make progress on it… maybe you tell your friends about it, and they’re excited too.
 
You start the ball rolling, and good things happen.
 
You can’t believe you’re doing it… go you!
 
And then…
 
And then you find someone else doing something similar to what you’re doing.
 
Very similar indeed.
 
But worse - they’re way ahead of you!
 
Way, way ahead.
 
In fact, they’re so far in the distance, you can barely see them.
 
Zoom!
 
Perhaps they have a blog with thousands of subscribers, or they’ve travelled to 60 countries in the world, or they’ve just been interviewed on national TV (national!)
 
It can feel really, really sucky.
 
It stings.
 
And it can make you question what you’re doing.
 
Why you’re doing it.
 
How can you do this?
 
What’s the point if someone is already doing it - and killing it, at that?!
 
Maybe you should just stop now.
 
Quit while you’re ahead.
 
So my response to that is:
 
NO.
 
No, no, no, no, no :)
 
Don’t worry.
 
It is okay to find someone doing something similar to you.
 
(In fact, it’s a good thing, because it means your idea has traction.)
 
But here’s the important thing to remember – and I wish I could shout it from a megaphone:
 
Be where you are.
 
Yep.
 
Be where you are - right now.
 
Be comfortable with it.
 
With where you are on your journey.
 
See, there will always be people further ahead of you!
 
That’s not the point.
 
The point is this:
 
How far have you come in the last few months?
 
How much have you achieved or accomplished… things that you never thought you would (or could) do?
 
How have you gotten to where you are now?
 
And what will you do in the next day, week, or two weeks to move you closer to your goal?
 
I’m sorry to break it to you, but there are people who have been going down the same road as you, for much, much longer.
 
And they will have achieved more, and will seem like they know everything about it.
 
But here’s the cool thing:
 
Put together the action steps you’re taking today, this week, or over the next month…
 
and before you know it, they come together to create years.
 
And you’ll have moved further than you ever could have imagined.
 
But you can’t get there if you give up at the first hurdle!
 
And that’s exactly what finding someone who is further ahead of you is – a hurdle to get over.
 
Nothing more.
 
So be okay with where you are – on your journey – and know that the only way those people got to where they are now…
 
Is because they started where you were, and they didn’t give up.