One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

The life you imagine, the path not taken, the person you might have been, can feel more vivid and more truly yours than the one you are actually living. Daydreams and regrets carry a sense of what you really want. Meanwhile the life you do lead can feel like a compromise that happened while you were not looking.

It is worth taking that imagined life seriously, not as an escape but as information. Ask what it contains that your actual days lack. Some of it may be unreachable, but often a piece of it can be brought into the life you have, in a smaller and real form.