(Serious) I have severe validation seeking issues in a playgroup and I need to mentally grow. What can I do?

I have played the hard grind to get to immortal, something which I am proud of.

I have an irl playgroup (acquaintances, not necessarily friends) who I've known for a decade who all aspire to the grind too. But they are archon-legend. I could say we started off in a similar place but I outpaced them in growth

[Editing to add detail. I don't play dota with them. I used to in 2015 ish but since then, they are just people I visit irl and talk about dota with. Just adding this detail to steer away from the gameplay advice I'm receiving. This isn't about gameplay and more about mindset and changing as a person irl. But I appreciate you anyways!]

What I've noticed is that over the years the group has become my guilty pleasure. I flex knowing they are jealous, and that fuels me, I guess. I know this is not where I should be as a person. As in, I shouldn't really be seeking highs in such a petty way. I want to understand myself and what I can do to stop thinking like this.

I'm a weak willed person. I think I've had a lifelong lust to prove myself in life, not just dota2. So every time I get a chance to humble brag a big feat, I feel myself and I chase that high (internally) in a sad way. Its almost a vengeful "fuck you all, I'm a god and you are trash. I worked my way to the top just to feel kingly" sort of mental.

I know that this pursuit is regressive to my growth and I know I would be growing way faster if I replaced this rubbish ego with a more pure desire to just improve without validation seeking. Improve for the sake of improvement.

So I ask here to anyone who has gone through these stages in life, how did you grow out of it?

Tldr: I'm rewarding myself in a shallow way and this has trained my mind to settle for less. I need to un-train this so I can have bigger ambitions. How did you do it?