The Best Choice Is the One You Can Live With
A reflection from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Hej! It’s William!
This is part of the "Meller Highlights" series with reflections and learnings from my personal book highlights. As mentioned here, this series is now something I’m keeping special for the people who support this channel as paid subscribers.
If you’ve been following along and enjoying the ideas I share, I’d love to have you join them. Becoming a subscriber not only gives you full access, but it also helps me keep creating and going deeper with the work I do.
How do these highlights work? Every day I pick one idea from my reading and think about how to apply it in real life. Most stay as private notes, but once a week, I choose one that feels special.
That’s the one I share here, a highlight that turns into a deeper reflection on how it can change the way we do something.
Today’s highlight: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
“If I had to embrace a definition of success, it would be that success is making the best choices we can … and accepting them.”
Let’s reflect on that…
Success gets thrown around a lot. And most of the time, it feels like something out there. Something big. Measurable. Impressive.
But according to Sheryl in this quote, success is about choosing well and standing by what you chose. That’s it.
Making the best choices you can, with what you know, where you are, and who you are at that moment, and then living those choices without regret eating you up later.
It sounds simple, but it’s not always easy.
We always think that there’s always a better job somewhere.
A different path you could have taken.
Someone your age is doing something completely different and looking successful doing it.
And that pressure doesn’t stop. You need to shut it off yourself.
Let me explain it in a way that hits a little closer.
You make a choice. You leave a job. You start a family. You say yes to a move. You stay in a company you believe in. You follow stability over ambition. Or ambition over comfort.
In that moment, it feels right. But then time passes, people talk, other lives show up in your feed, and slowly, doubt starts to creep in.
Did I choose wrong?
Should I have aimed higher?
Was I too cautious?
That’s where this idea matters most. If you made that decision with clarity and care, then part of success is learning to accept it and build with it, not against it.
And no, accepting doesn’t mean settling. It means being consistent.
Showing up for the life you chose. Owning it instead of constantly scanning for something else.
In work and in life, this kind of consistency brings peace.
Because you’re not fighting your own path.
If we’re always questioning our choices, always comparing, always restarting, we never really go deep. We stay busy, but shallow. Tired, but unclear.
Have you ever felt proud of a choice even when it didn’t look impressive on the outside?
Or the opposite, made a flashy choice that didn’t feel like you on the inside?
I’d love to hear how you’ve been thinking about this in your own journey.
This is your tip today, inspired by one of my highlights from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.
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