Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Entitlement is a quiet tax on your own effort. When you believe something is owed, every ordinary difficulty starts to feel like an injustice, and the energy that could go into the work goes into the grievance instead. Nothing was arranged in advance for you, which is a hard thought at first and a freeing one after that. If nothing is owed, then anything you get is yours.

Catch the sentence that begins with what you deserve, and see whether it is helping you. Then ask the smaller question of what you can actually build or ask for this week. The complaint and the request are rarely the same move.