“It’s your life – but only if you make it so. The standards by which you live must be your own standards, your own values, your own convictions in regard to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is important and what is trivial. When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else… you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.”

Eleanore Roosevelt

Another reflection on what the weight of the regret (see Rohn quote) and compromise (see Kipling quote): It might be a simple question of integrity. It might really be about the promises we don’t keep. As Thomas Sowell reminds us, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” We can’t have it all. But, there is a difference between getting what you want and, or, need, and having it all. We simply don’t always make great trades. Too often, we trade potential for security, growth for safety, passion for obligation, or pleasure now for fulfillment later, one too many times. Too often, we betray ourself (or our future self). Worse, we make it a habit and no longer feel whole. The numerator (who we try to be) and the denominator (who we are) differ.