You know you have changed when things you once wanted to win no longer seem worth entering.

Certain competitions stop appealing once you understand what winning them actually delivers. The promotion, the argument, the recognition from a particular group: you can see the whole sequence now, including how it feels a month later, and it no longer justifies the entry fee. That loss of appetite is easy to mistake for giving up when it is closer to accurate pricing.

Make a short list of things you were once determined to win. Ask which of them you would still enter today and why. The ones that fell away are showing you how your values have moved, and that information is more useful than any goal-setting exercise.