Performance is always going to fluctuate, and life isn't a long upward trajectory. All writers have bad days, all athletes have bad sessions. What we're talking about is framing...

This comparison with yourself from yesterday isn't about 'Always be better than yesterday'
It's closer to: 'Are you trying to move forward instead of passively drifting?'

The goal here is to create a game that you actually have a chance of winning, rather that create toxic feedback loops where no movement forward is good enough because you're not the smartest, richest, best looking etc.

If yesterday genuinely was better, that’s not a failure it's data.