Self-Awareness

We were from the same town. We went to the same school. We moved abroad, to the same city. We were working in the same profession, with the same title. But over the years, our situations couldn’t be more different: I had ten times his savings, I had traveled the world twice over, I had bought a house in a place I loved, and was paying less in mortgage than he was in rent, in an area of the city he disliked. We were worlds apart. Every piece of advice or encouragement I’d try to share would be met with the same answer: “My situation is different.” ...

I’ve always lived a little differently—not because I was trying to stand out, but because it was natural for me to question things, seek better solutions, and make decisions that felt right for me. It wasn’t until adulthood, though, when life became more complicated, that I realized how much these instincts had shaped my life. More importantly, I started to notice how many people don’t live this way—and how that leads to a lot of avoidable mistakes and frustrations. ...