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The Only Person You're Competing Against is You · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for riding success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you ever run a race, you'll notice that there are two kinds of runners.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those who are competing against everybody else and those who are competing against themselves.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the ones who are competing against everybody else take running really seriously.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: They like to set records and get the glory of being known as a winner.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And there's of course nothing necessarily wrong with that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: The runners competing against themselves, though, they're not worried about anybody else's time.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to run their own race and hopefully beat their previous record.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Their main concern is did I improve over last time?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: But at the very least, they just want to finish the race, which is a phenomenal achievement in itself, since the vast majority of people never even participate in a race.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this actually happened to me last year.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: This was last October when I ran a 10K race.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've done a number of races over the last few years, but this was a 10K race, which is not a big, long, massive race, but it was something that I felt like was doable and I wouldn't have to invest a ton of time into training for.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the thing is, in my own heart, I wasn't competing against anybody else.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I just went at my own pace, which actually, to be totally honest with you, happened to be really slow, but yet I still finished the race.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I went with my wife and with my brother, and they were both finished long before I was finished, so they were kind of, you know, lollygagging around at the finish line, waiting on slow Kent.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was totally okay with that.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I did not go to compete with anybody else.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just went to do my own race and I ran at my own pace.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I even walked part of it, and I was thrilled that I just went there and I actually finished the race.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of writers look at the creative journey as one where they're competing against everybody else.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: They worry way too much about rankings, comparisons, and what everybody else thinks about them.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Writing is about running your own race.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are not competing against other people.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the question here is: are you getting better over time?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Are you consistently publishing your work?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And are you leaning more and more into your own unique voice as a writer?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the kind of metrics that matter most.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, hey, did I sell more books than my friend over here, or do I have more speaking gigs, or how many books do they have written and published?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's okay to have, I guess, some friendly competition.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there is an element to where when you hang out with writers that their success then spurs you on to more success because, you know, it's kind of that old, that old Bible imagery of running with the horses.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, when you run with the turtles, you're gonna be really slow, but when you run with the horses, you got to keep up with the pack a little bit.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't know if you call a group of horses a pack.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what is that called anyway?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I should probably Google that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I obviously I know nothing about animals, so I'm just making stuff up here on this episode.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is when you run with a group of horses, you're gonna do your best to keep up with them.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that's called a pack or a gaggle of horses, I'm pretty sure that's not right.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it's called, you got to keep up with them.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there is an element to where when you hang out with successful people that it is going to push you to try and be more successful.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that being said, though, again, here's kind of the main point of this episode is that you're not competing against them, you're elevating each other.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a big difference.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: When you hang around successful people, you're you're not in competition, but you're just lifting each other up.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as they say, a rising tide lifts all ships.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are in the same harbor as other people who are successful, then their success is gonna lift up your success as well.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The novelist David Morrell, who wrote one of my favorite novel novels of all time, First Blood.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was the novel that first introduced us to the iconic character of John Rambo.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, First Blood is one of my very favorite movies of all time.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: He said this.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, uh, David Morrell said this, not John Rambo.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: David Morrell said, you have to follow your own voice.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be yourself when you write.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: In effect, you have to announce this is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing the best I can, by me or not, but this is who I am as a writer.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, I absolutely love those words from him.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is he really encouraging in that he's also a very, very successful novel.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking for a good adventure novel and you like action movies from the 80s and that that kind of stuff, you will really, really like the novel First Blood.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's way, way better than the movie, by the way.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I really, really love the movie.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the novel is just phenomenal.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like audiobooks, I listened to the audiobook.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I've listened to it twice.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Both times, primarily while I was doing hikes in the woods, and man, that is a great audiobook.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really good.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, that's kind of a side note.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, back to the main the main point of this episode the only person you're responsible to become is you.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the only race you've got to run is the one you're running against yourself.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually in the it's actually a question.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get overly distracted by what other writers are doing?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And do you ever forget to run your own race?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to ask that question of yourself and be honest in your response.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you tend to compare yourself, don't do that.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing you should be comparing yourself against is your own previous success.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is, are you growing?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you getting better?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are you more excited about your work than ever before?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, then man, you're doing really, really well, I promise you.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, before I wrap up today, I want to give a huge shout out to today's sponsor, Thumbprint Creative.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've probably heard the saying, don't judge a book by its cover, but in the book world, that is the biggest lie imaginable.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: People do judge the quality of a book by its cover.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the cover design, in fact, is the first thing that most people notice about a book.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why my graphic designer of choice is Christy Griffith, my good friend, as well as the owner of Thumbprint Creative.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked with Christy for years, and she's designed covers and interior and done interior layouts for my own books for many of my ghostwriting clients, as well as book covers for a lot of friends that I've sent her away.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Christy works really closely with you to design a layout for your book and a cover design that perfectly captures its theme and genre.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm working on her with hey, let me count.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right now it's two book covers.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of them is actually my own.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a book coming out in January called The Daily Writer.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've been working on this book a really long time, and she's designed a really phenomenal cover for it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to do a reveal very, very soon for that.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: She's also working on one of my client books, and I'm just so thrilled with her work.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I do want to say that if you listen to this podcast on a regular basis, you hear me talk about these people who sponsor the show.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you that I only have sponsors on the show when I really believe in what they're doing and when I really like what they're doing.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't just have sponsors because, you know, they've paid to be a sponsor of the show.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, they have paid to be a sponsor, but I have really stringent guidelines for who I allow to be a sponsor of the show because it's important to me that you feel that I'm sharing somebody with you that I use and that I appreciate and that I think you should use too.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that is absolutely the case with Christy as well.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: She's really, really good.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you need a great book cover and you need some good interior formatting, and she also does proofreading, by the way, make sure you get in touch with her.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to go thumbprint.com to learn more and to look at Christy's book covers that she's done in the past.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you want to, if you would like a personal intro to Christy, shoot me an email, Kent at dailywriterlife.com.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I will be thrilled to make a personal introduction between you and my good friend Christy.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really believe in her work and really like her as a person.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: She's amazing.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, just shoot me an email if you'd like a personal intro.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I would be happy and honored to do that for you.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, this episode's gone on a little bit longer than usual, but I guess that's okay.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will see you next time.