Somebody from your grade just got engaged, somebody else got a startup funded. None of them are your clock.

Comparison falls apart once you notice you are watching a few dozen people run completely different races and treating each result as a deadline. Their timing comes from their circumstances, their luck and their choices. None of that tells you anything about when your things are supposed to happen.

When the announcement lands and your stomach drops, let the feeling pass before you act on it. Then go and look at your own last six months. What you made is not cancelled by somebody else’s news.