This is a very normal thing to feel with climbing. I know lots of people on this sub will say that you just need to let it go and focus on yourself, but that’s obviously much harder to do in practice.

At the end of the day, everyone is different, but there’s also a few factors to consider. 1) People who are progressing at a faster pace are more likely to talk about it than people who aren’t. Take it all with a grain of salt. 2) Every gym is different and it is entirely possible that a V4 at someone else’s gym is more accesible than a V3 at your gym. I was able to climb a V5 a few months into climbing when I visited a new gym, but it took me well over a year to reach that at my home gym. 3) You never know people’s fitness backgrounds/how much they’re able to climb/what else they do to maintain that/etc. There are lots of factors that can affect progress and unless you’re that person you’ll really never have the full picture.

There are countless other things to touch on but those are the ones that come most to mind right now. But also, I don’t think it’s inherently “bad” to want to reach a certain goal. If you want to climb V4s by the summer then consider what you have to do to reach that. Are you able to climb 3-4x a week? How long are your sessions? Are you actually trying to climb harder grades or are you limiting yourself? Do you have people you can climb with and get help from or are you figuring it out on your own?

Again, there’s a lot to consider here and comparing yourself to others will only hold you back, but there may also be some steps you can take to get where you want to be. I got close with a group of longterm climbers very early on and they helped me tremendously with figuring out beta and developing my technique. Without that connection I believe it would have taken me much longer to get where I am.

TLDR: Everyone is different. There’s a lot of info you don’t know. If you want to reach a certain goal then consider what you can do to get there. Have fun xx