The only leaderboard worth checking daily has one name on it, and you’re trying to beat its old record.

Ranking yourself against other people uses a list you did not write, made of people whose starting positions and circumstances you cannot see. Measuring against your own previous performance uses the only comparison where the conditions are close to matched, and it is available every single day.

Pick one thing you can compare with yourself last month. Not against the best person you know. Beat the old number by a little, and let that be the whole competition. It is a shorter list and a fairer one.