I don’t know if this means anything BUT this is my gut response, so…

Letting go of needing validation from other designers was huge for me. Like yes, it’s obviously nice, and I definitely engage with other designers for many reasons, but saying “I’m the only person I need to satisfy with this, and if it has the mysterious alchemy to find an audience that’s ideal, but I don’t need to impress anyone” made it a lot easier for me to start viewing my games not as precious jewels but as stages in a journey. Some are big and get a lot of traffic, but most are small and I’m the only one who passes through, and that’s fine!