WHERE IS YOUR SACRIFICE AND GAIN?

If I can’t close the accounting of past stories, the new stories I live will just be repetitions of the old ones.

The script, the characters, the time, and the places may change.

But within all these differences, I might fail to see that the core issue remains the same.

Isn’t that the trick life plays on us?

Before anything else, I need to calculate my profit and loss.

The sacrifices I think I’m making—are they truly sacrifices, or are they exchanges, a trade of giving and gaining?

Sacrifices do not exist without some form of return.

But those returns are often not tangible.

They are emotional. They are harder to name.

More often than not, they stem from our desire for approval, love, validation, recognition.

And in the stories we tell ourselves, we almost always play the role of the one who gives, who sacrifices, but in the end, never truly receives—and so, we are left with disappointment.

And this narrative?

Oh, it always sells.

It gets us allies. It gets us people who say, “You’re right, you deserved better.”

But does it change anything?

If what we truly want is change, then the real issue must shift.

So, tell me: In the stories you’ve been carrying, where is your real gain?

And more importantly—what are you still holding onto?