Keep receipts for what you gave up. Someday they’ll explain why you have what you have.

Costs get forgotten while results stay visible, including by the person who paid them. The parties skipped, the shifts taken, the easier option turned down; none of that shows up in the outcome, and later it becomes easy to look at your own life and call it luck. Remembering what it cost is not self congratulation. It is an accurate account of how something happened.

Keep a short record of what you are trading away right now and why. Read it during the stretches when the choice feels pointless. It also stops you dismissing your own effort later.