If you ever run a race, you’ll notice there are two kinds of runners: those who are competing against everyone else, and those who are competing against themselves.

The ones who are competing against everyone else take running very seriously. They like to set records and get the glory of being known as a winner. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.

The runners who are competing against themselves aren’t worried about anyone else’s time. They just want to run their own race and hopefully beat their previous record. At the very least, they want to finish the race, which is a phenomenal achievement in itself since the vast majority of people never participate in a race.

Many writers look at the creative journey as one where they are competing against everyone else. They worry too much about rankings, comparisons, and what everyone else thinks of them.

Writing is much more about running your own race. Are you getting better over time? Are you consistently publishing your work? Are you leaning more and more into your own unique voice? Those are the kinds of metrics that matter most.

The novelist David Morrell, who wrote the bestseller First Blood, said this: “You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, ‘This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I’m doing the best I can—buy me or not—but this is who I am as a writer.”

The only person you are responsible to become is you. And the only race you need to run is the one against yourself.