Standard of life

Nobody's standard of life is wrong. How you choose to live, what you allow, what you get up to, who you spend your time with, that is entirely your business. Have fun with it. Do what works for you. I am not here to tell you that you are living incorrectly.

But here is where people get it wrong.

The moment I decide that a certain lifestyle does not fit mine, suddenly I am judging. Suddenly I think I am better. Suddenly I have a problem with how someone lives. That is not what is happening. What is actually happening is that I recognise we are not compatible, and I am acting accordingly.

There is a big difference between those two things and most people never learn to separate them.

People confuse having standards with being judgmental because it is easier to make it about you than to accept that the issue is simply a mismatch.

My standard of living shapes everything. The timing of things in my life. How I communicate and what I expect in return. What I am willing to tolerate and what I am not. What I do with my time and who I share it with. None of that is up for negotiation to make someone else comfortable.

When your way of living does not line up with mine it does not mean you are doing life wrong. It just means we are doing life differently. That is fine. The world is full of different people living different lives and most of them are valid.

And with all of that being said, I get to decide my level of involvement. That might mean I am around often. It might mean occasionally. It might mean not at all. That decision belongs to me.

The people who struggle most with this are usually the ones who have never clearly defined their own standard. When you do not have one, boundaries feel like rejection. Standards feel like superiority. Selective involvement feels like abandonment. It is not. It is just two people on different paths.

You do not have to justify your standard to anyone. You do not have to apologise for it. You do not have to lower it so that someone else feels comfortable around you. Your standard exists to protect the quality of your life, your energy, and your time. Live how you want. Just know that I will do the same.