The way you live isn’t the only way.

I'm 30 years old, and I've already lived six different lives.

Not metaphorically. Literally. Every five years or so, I wake up and realize the person I was—with their habits, beliefs, and daily rhythms—feels like a stranger. The transformations happen faster when you're young, when you're still figuring out who you are and what type of person you want to become.

Each version of myself felt permanent at the time. Each felt like the "real" me. But looking back, I see the pattern: We are not fixed beings moving through time. We are possibilities becoming real.

Here's what I've learned: The way you live isn't the only way.

Life Outside the Bubble

I learned this most clearly when I was living in a van, wandering across North America.

For months, I existed outside society's bubble, watching the morning ritual of a city waking up. I'd drive past coffee shops and watch the drive-through lines—people waiting impatiently in their cars, tapping steering wheels, checking phones, rushing to get caffeinated before rushing to offices.

I watched parents drop kids at schools, nurses in scrubs rushing to clock in, each following similar patterns but living completely different internal realities.

This scene plays out in every major city worldwide, with slight variations but the same beautiful complexity. Humanity has invented countless ways of living, and most of them work.

What struck me wasn't that any way was right or wrong—it's that there are infinite ways to exist.

The Invisible Prison

You practice a religion you've never named. Every morning, you perform the same rituals. Coffee before conversation. Email before breakfast. The same route to work. The same mental loops about money, relationships, and meaning.

This repetition creates the illusion that this is just "how life is." But it's not how life is—it's how your life is. Right now. In this moment.

I've lived as the minimalist monk. The van life wanderer. The digital nomad. The corporate climber. The routine-obsessed optimizer. The creative chaos artist. Each felt like the only possible way to exist when I was living it.

But they were all just choices. Choices I could make differently at any second.

The Second of Choice

Here's what most people miss: You don't need permission to change your entire life. You don't need a plan, a crisis, or the perfect moment.

You can stop what you're doing right now and choose something completely different.

I wanted to write this essay. I could have said, "I'll write later." Instead, I stopped everything and started writing.

You can quit your job today. You can move to a different city. You can start learning a new language. You can call someone you miss. You can change your entire daily routine. You can become a completely different person.

The only thing stopping you is the story you tell yourself about who you are.

What Would You Choose?

Think about someone living a life completely different from yours. A fisherman in Alaska. A street artist in Berlin. A teacher in rural Japan. A surfer in Costa Rica. A programmer working remotely from Vietnam.

Their daily reality is nothing like yours. Their concerns, rhythms, and sources of meaning are entirely different. Yet they're not living incorrectly. They're just living differently.

The question isn't which life is better. The question is: Which life would you choose if you allowed yourself the permission to explore?

The Infinite Menu

Your current life is one option on an infinite menu. You've been ordering the same thing so long you forgot you could order something else.

Look at your past self. Five years ago, you lived differently than you do now. That person would be amazed by some of your current choices and confused by others.

Look at your future self. Five years from now, you'll be living differently again. That person doesn't have to be a slightly evolved version of who you are today. They can be someone completely new.

You have the power to become someone entirely different, starting in this exact moment.

The Choice Is Always There

I'm not telling you to quit your job or move to Bali or become a minimalist. I'm not telling you to do anything.

I'm telling you that you could.

The way you live isn't the only way. It's just the way you've chosen so far.

And you can choose again. And again. And again.

What would you choose if you truly believed you could?