Hello there readers,

Merry Chrysler. I hope everyone is ready for the holiday breaks and getting some R&R in before we die of polio or get abducted by drones or any of the other things that are stacking up on your 2025 bingo card.

For me, I’ll be headed into the mountains of Colorado yet again for a holiday full of snow and winter vibes; I already can’t wait for a coffee, some jazz, and watching the snow fall over the dense trees (he really is just a simple n’ chill guy).

There have been many ups and downs this year in my personal, professional, and creative life, but them’s the breaks. Although the highs and lows have taken a bit of a toll and have burnt me out more times than I’d care to admit, I understand that this is all part of the journey, and these experiences will set me up for an even better 2025.

But enough of all that sappy stuff. This is the time of year when the rollercoaster of emotions lulls to a stop so you can get some mental clarity and reset for the next whirl around the track (albeit hopefully a bit smoother this time around).

So, my dear readers, be sure to take some time for yourself this holiday season so you can set yourself up for success in early January.

Speaking of taking time for yourself, this will be the last issue of 2024, and while I’m ready for a break, I’m already so excited to continue my yapping in 2025. Thank you to all of you who have been supporting this newsletter from the beginning, and thank you to all of those who have joined this year and have stuck around so far.

I won’t go on for three paragraphs talking about my appreciation for you, but seriously, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being part of this community, for responding to articles, for sharing with friends, for clicking my links when I have them (go ahead, you know you want to support 😉)… Your support genuinely keeps me pushing and makes me feel like my insane thoughts and writings have an audience. It means the entire world to me. ❤️ 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a fantastic New Year to you all. I’ll see you in 2025, but until then, I hope you enjoy this week’s read.

Oh! This week’s post is also supported by AI Tool Report; go give ‘em a click if you want to give me a gift this season. It helps more than you know!

-Luke

Comparison & Other Joy Thievery

I used to be a LinkedIn Stan.

Seriously, my love-hate relationship with this platform has been wild over the past few years. While the sentiment ebbs and flows, I recently did some reflection and realized the things that have changed in my own mentality and professional life and how they play a heavy role in how I feel about the platform and what’s being posted there.

Kicking things off, going back to pre-start-up life (damn near three years ago), I hated LinkedIn. To me, it was a place where cringe “professionals” would shill their products. I couldn’t stand it, and I wouldn’t dare post there. I eventually got over this random hate, and started posting so I could tap in and shill my own product, my start-up. And while it started as terrible copy and general “check this out!” type content, I eventually found my voice, started posting solid thought pieces, connecting with super smart folks in the space, and slowly started to fall in love with the platform.

At this point, LinkedIn was the space where I could see innovation up close and connect with insanely smart people who were building incredible things. But over time, that excitement has faded yet again, making me feel like the old days again.

Rather than inspiration, I am consistently feeling frustration. And transparently, the constant stream of funding announcements and perfectly crafted success stories makes it hard not to compare myself and feel like I’m falling short in my own endeavors.

I know these posts are just highlights, not the full picture, but that doesn’t make it any easier. What once sparked curiosity now feels… heavy.

The Creator and Founder Struggle

Being both a creator and a founder makes this even harder. As a writing creator, LinkedIn is where I share my work, grow my audience, and connect (outside of here, of course). But sometimes, it feels like the reach, the number of likes, or amount of comments defines how good I am. And as a founder, this feels even more personal. After almost three years of bootstrapping the startup, seeing others celebrate huge funding rounds or big wins can feel defeating. Even though I’m pumped for folks in my space, and I love to see great products get into the hands of more creators, it’s just tough not to feel like I’m, we’re, being left behind.

Comparison Continued

Let’s be real, comparison F’s with your reality. It’s easy to forget that every success story has struggles behind it, and I’m more than sure that 99% of these success stories likely had a very similar trajectory as mine, and they have felt these same feelings as well.

While I understand that most every entrepreneur around me has gone through this and absolutely without any doubt deserves their success and praises, I celebrate, but deep down, I kinda feel like this. Instead of seeing someone else win and feeling motivated, it’s started to make me feel stuck. And instead of making connections and feeling the fire in my belly to push forward, I found that I’d pulled back.

I don’t say all of this to bum you out, though. I want to bring this up and push it into the light because this is not who I am or how I think. And I’m certain that all of you readers have felt this as well. My favorite tactic is to put these feelings out, so I can better reflect and understand why I feel this way, so I can make necessary changes and mentality shifts.

Reclaiming Joy

Acknowledging the problem is one thing, but what matters even more is doing something about it. Here’s how I’m handling this internal conflict, and some tips that might help you if you’re in a similar position.

1. Edit Your Feed: This is going to help you more than you’d expect. If you’re finding that one type of person or post is messing with you, just unfollow or mute those folks. It’s nothing personal, it’s not forever, and it can help you stay on track rather than getting sideswiped during your leisurely scroll. Follow people who genuinely inspire you.

2. Celebrate Your Wins: While you may compare yourself to others who just gained 500k followers or raised a million in funding, make sure to celebrate your wins too, no matter how small. This is something that I used to do, and I used to get a ton of support. But recently, I’ve stepped back and started to feel like my wins weren’t big enough to share. If you start sharing, you may start feeling that spark once again.

3. Set Limits: Dude, stop scrolling. This is a message to myself, and to those of you who are grappling with this feeling. I guarantee that as soon as you close one scroll platform, you open another. THIS DOES NOT HELP. Instead of engaging in yet another space that is algorithmically trained to pull on your emotions, shut your phone off, minimize that tab, and go do something else. Go clean, go for a walk, go create. Enveloping yourself in the process will help you avoid being sucked into someone else’s.

Moving Forward

Comparison is inevitable, but we can control how much these things play a role in our lives. While I could take a dozen tips, I’m starting with these three to see how much I can change by taking baby steps. Contrary to LinkedIn, not everything has to be a huge change, show, or show out. Sometimes it’s about the baby steps, as even they are progress.

If you’ve felt this way too—frustrated, jaded, or drained by something that used to bring you joy, I wanted to take the time to let you know that you’re not alone. But there’s some good news here too, we don’t have to stay stuck there. Don’t let comparison snatch your good juju, if you’re building, keep at it. If you’re stuck, push through it slowly but surely. You don’t have to do everything in a day, and no one has expectations of you, that are higher than your own.

I hope you all can take the holiday downtime to decompress and return with newfound energy and no comparisons. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

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Hope you enjoyed this week’s post. See you next week ✌️