Is our payoff in the journey to the top~ or in having reached our destination? I believe it's the former.
Do you feel a burning need to be The BEST at something? Does life ever feel lovely or isolating for ya? Being able to rise to our excellence, is a marvelous thing~ but most don't recognize how exclusionary it is. Being the best often feels like living high atop a mountain, and having no neighbors even relatively close, that you can enjoy visiting with. In short, it can be lonely at the top!
What is the driving force for you behind your desire to be The Best? Are you seeking validation or approval from others? Is this fierce need in you trying to mask a subtle, unresolved sense of insecurity that's perhaps left over from an unstable childhood?
What part of you gets fed from having achieved being THE BEST at something? Can you simply take joy in that personal accomplishment, and give yourself richly satisfying kudos for it~ or is there a craving in you to have your achievements mirrored and applauded by others, and where do you think THAT comes from?
Personally, I think we organically and naturally grow into being at the to of our game, when passion for it is the driving force. I for one, never said to myself, "I want to be the best writer or healer," but diligent, continuous practice brought me to a place of recognition by others I could never have pre-imagined.
I'm actually STILL feeling like that achievement involved a bit of magic, because I could never have foreseen it happening.