So... I'm a couple years into my PhD program and have no first-author paper publications. This is while I'm looking at other people (some who entered the same year) and whom are already getting first-author pubs. Even other people in my lab. This is feels massively disappointing. I hate feeling like I'm behind others, or I'm somehow inferior.
Does anyone else have experience with this? I want to submit papers to some places, but the deadlines are not in the near future. Moreover, my goals feel distant and maybe not even accomplishable. There is so much sweat, creativity and suffering that needs to occur before those even become remotely possible. I just feel incredibly down when I compare myself to other students. I feel like I should be working as hard as them, but that simply isn't how I work.
Any suggestions? Yes, I'm ready to work. But at the same time I get deflated everytime I think of where I'm at.