We live in a culture that celebrates brilliance. Everywhere you look, people worship the best and the brightest among us. The internet, magazines, movies, social media… they are obsessed with people who seem to have it all.

That’s why it’s hard to feel motivated when you compare your own first draft to the latest million-selling book by a celebrity author. It seems like such a deep chasm between you and them. How can you ever cross it? How do you ever hope to compete with all the so-called brilliant authors out there?

It’s a question that doesn’t actually matter. There are three reasons why.

First, you can’t control other authors’ success. It really has nothing to do with your own success. We compare the two things in our minds, but in reality, they are not connected.

Second, as they say, a rising tide lifts all ships. So, when someone else’s book is brilliant and sells a million copies, that’s good for every author.

Third, and most importantly, the definition of “brilliant” is not up to you, anyway. What one reader sees as brilliant, another reader sees as totally pointless.

If you’ve ever struggled with comparison, you’re not alone. Elizabeth Gilbert felt this way also. She said, “One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: That’s actually not my problem. I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.”

That’s pretty good advice, and apparently, it works, since her mega-bestselling book, Eat Pray Love, has sold millions upon millions of copies. It turns out that you don’t need to be brilliant after all. You just need to be brilliantly consistent.

Today’s Challenge: Are you worried about being “brilliant” as an author, or are you just focused on doing the work and carving out your own path?