Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen posts by two playwrights.

They’ve had professional productions of a few of their plays.

The thing is, I met them before they had written any plays.

But I had written some when I met them. Theoretically, I was further along than they were.

Their success has surpassed mine.

And that pang of envy struck.

Why them? Why not me? Why haven’t I been as successful?

And then I remembered the running advice: Run your own race.

That goes for creative endeavours, too.

I don’t know where they were starting from.

And it doesn’t matter.

I know that I could put more effort into my writing.

The thing is to focus on the process. Not what other people are doing.

I’m not going to improve by being jealous of other people. I’ve got to write and keep writing if I want to get better.

It keeps coming back to the same thing.

Do the work.

Run your own race.