Your victory does not signal my defeat

​I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday. A friend posted she'd just finished reading her 80th book of the year.

EIGHTY!!😮😮

I call myself a big reader. And so, after reading her post, my mind immediately went to:

I am SO. FAR. BEHIND.....

I glanced over at the stack of books in my 'to be read stack' - and it's possible THAT stack totals 80 - but my finished books list for the year isn't even a quarter of my friend's list.

My finished list suddenly felt unfinished. Incomplete. My mind went to thinking, I'll never catch up. Why bother reading at all?

Then I caught myself. Thank God almighty I'm so much better at catching myself.

I caught myself and reminded myself, I don't read to maximize the number of books I read. And that is NOT to diminish those who read a high volume of books. But my reading is a process. I underline and highlight and fold pages.

When I'm done with a book, it's unreadable for anyone else.

I use quotes from books in presentations. I build slide decks out of information I gather. I write articles. If I get two chapters into a book and it's not heavily underlined or quoted, I toss it aside.

Unapologetically. Unfinished books do not haunt me.

Books serve a purpose in my life and in where I'm going. I know books serve a different purpose in my friend's life. It's not important for me to know which of us has a better purpose or which of us gains more value out of reading, what's important for me to know is the number of books she reads has zero bearing on where I'm trying to go.

Unless, that is, I get to feeling like I'll never get where I want to go because of where she's already been.

Think about it. How illogical is that? Knowing we are both headed to two very different places, yet I get to feeling behind on my mission because she's closer to completing hers?

We all have different gifts. Different missions. We are all running our own race. Someone winning theirs is not the greatest prediction of where I'm going to finish in mine.

I am the greatest prediction of that.

What she gets out of her 81st book won't have near the impact on my race as what I take away from the book I'm currently reading.

There are days I wish I could read 100 books in a year.

But it's not who I am.

And nothing good ever comes from me wishing I was someone I am not.

Run your race.

Just YOUR race.

And hey, win it!