Being the best in a small pond can make you lazy right before the ocean shows up.

Comparison sets your effort level without asking permission. When the people around you are easy to beat, your sense of what hard work looks like quietly adjusts downward, and nothing in the environment corrects it. The problem only becomes visible when the context changes, which is usually a moment you did not choose.

Find a version of your activity where you are clearly not the best and spend some time there. Not to be discouraged, but to recalibrate. Let the discomfort of being average somewhere tell you what the real scale is.