Spend enough time guessing what everyone wants and you’ll forget how to hear what you want.

Reading a room constantly is a real skill and it has a cost. When your attention lives entirely in what other people need, the signal from your own preferences gets quieter every year, until someone asks what you want and you genuinely do not know. The answer is missing because you stopped listening for it, not because it does not exist.

Practice on small things where nothing is at stake. What do you want to eat, what do you want to listen to, do you actually want to go? Answer before you consider anyone else, then decide. The muscle comes back faster than you would expect.