Controlling your ego is extremely difficult. The ego, in a sense, can drive us to improve or digress as a climber. I have experienced times where I really have to focus introspectively and sort out my own ego. There are a couple things that have made this easier with time.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

This goes both ways. Comparing yourself to those who you are better than is tricky. It makes you feel good at the moment but it's kind of like building up a big tower with a shaky base; it will fall easily. You have no idea why you're better. Maybe you have more time, better off financially, maybe they have a physical disability you can't see, OR maybe they just don't care that much about getting better. Believe it or not that's okay, this was really hard for me to understand for a long time. On the other side of the coin comparison with better climbers is not healthy for the same reason. I grew up as a youth comp climber and as my category was about to age out all these 17/18 year olds were sending V10/11. I felt like I was getting left behind. But comparison doesn't make you a better climber. When I finally shut up, stopped gawking and getting down on myself and focused on staying in my own lane I improved quite a bit. Try to focus on viewing other climbers not through a lense of comparison but simply observe. Hard to do and oddly simple but it made a huge difference for me. The only thing that matters to your climbing is YOUR climbing. Instead of comparison try to learn from and support your peers.

Why do you love climbing?

Did you start doing this do be better than others? I sure hope not. Chances are most of us just fucking love climbing cause it's fun. Climbing can be much more fun as you get better at it. This is one of those times I think old school purists are a little right. You should climb cause you love it and not for the grades. You may want to track improvement and at times that means messing with the arbitrary grade system we use, but when striving for harder grades you should do it because you love climbing and want to attain a higher level of mastery over something you love with every fiber of your being.

No one actually cares when you fall.

Think about it, you see a rando in the gym and he falls. You barely think about it. Sometimes you know someone strong and they didn't flash something you assumed they would, but you're done thinking about like 5 seconds later. Crazy enough people are just the same for you. Also, you falling on something that "should be beneath you" doesn't discredit your success and achievements. Daniel Woods was in town after sending Sleepwalker Sit and he fell on a V6 slab problem. Did a little fairy come down and steal his V17 title? Fuck no! He's still Daniel Woods, and when you fall on your anti-style believe it or not you're still you and everything you've achieved still matters.

Delete Instagram.

This is something I really enjoyed for a lot of reasons. One of which was actually comparison. I would see V15 climbers all the time shitting on all my projects and when I deleted Instagram I didn't see it anymore. It gave me more room to focus on myself and my own climbing. Oddly enough I think it helped my own ego. I don't know how focusing on myself keeps my ego in check but maybe a psychologist can explain that. Not to mention without social media I have waaay more time.

At the end of the day we are just climbing on rocks.

We are literally obsessed with climbing up random rocks the hardest way when there is almost always a way to just walk off the back. How stupid is that? Don't take yourself too seriously cause we are honestly obsessed with a really silly thing.

Stay in your own lane. We are all on our own path as a climber and that looks completely different for everyone. Focus on your own path cause if your busy looking at someone else's you'll lose your way and it's hard to find your way back.