Always Feel Like You’re Falling Behind? What I Remind Myself

One feeling I find hard to get over is that I’m always falling behind. Some days it feels like a game you never win.

If you feel the same, you’re not the only one. For me it shows up in three ways.

1. Technology

It’s got to the point where learning something new is almost scary, because a few days later it might be obsolete, or something else will make it easier. So I’ve ended up focusing on improving the skills I already have, rather than trying to learn every new one.

2. Where you start

Where you live makes a big difference to what you can earn. You can work for the same company in South Africa and in the US, do the same work, and end up with very different savings. It sometimes feels like it takes double the effort to reach the same place. It isn’t about comparing yourself with others; it’s a reality that can be hard to swallow.

3. Being stretched

Running a tech business full-time isn’t easy on this side of the world unless you go down the usual route of selling or reselling, which makes you less a tech company and more a business that happens to be in tech. Like many people building something here, I take on other work alongside it.

So your focus gets pulled in several directions. In a year I can add a feature or two a month to our ERP, and if I really push, one or two genuinely exciting things. And every new client brings requirements the system didn’t have yet, so the list of what could be built never gets shorter. On an off day, all of that starts to get to you.

What I remind myself

Deepen, don’t chase. Trying to learn every new tool is a race nobody wins. Get better at the skills you use, and learn new ones when a real problem calls for them. Depth lasts longer than the newest tool.

Measure your own climb. Comparing yourself with others puts their present against your past, and you’ll always lose. Compare with where you were a year ago instead.

Context counts. If you started further back, the same distance took twice the effort. It counts double.

A growing list usually means demand, not failure. Pick the next one thing, not the whole list.

Don’t judge your progress on an off day. Off days pass. Progress keeps adding up.

How do you deal with it?