Ambition is strongest when comparison is removed from the fuel tank.

When comparison is the fuel, your effort rises and falls with other people’s results, and none of it is under your control. You work hard in the weeks someone is ahead and drift in the weeks you feel comfortable, so the engine sputters for reasons that have nothing to do with the work. Ambition that runs on your own standard has a steadier supply.

Try going a week without checking on whoever you tend to measure yourself against. Set a target defined only by what you want the work to be. Notice whether your effort becomes more even, which is usually the first thing to change.