The only fair race is against who you were last year.

Comparing yourself to somebody else sets two different starting points, two sets of circumstances and two amounts of luck against each other, then calls the result a verdict about you. Measured against your own earlier self, most of those variables hold still. What you see there is real, and it is the only version of the comparison that gives usable information.

Find one thing you can measure across a year. A weight, a time, a skill, a count of anything. Check it twice a year and ignore where everyone else is standing.