Love coupons

We tell ourselves we’re being realistic, that less is better than nothing, that crumbs are enough when we are starving, but at some point, survival becomes a habit, and in the name of safety, we start accepting coupons for things that should never be discounted.

When settling feels safer than seeking:

We lower the bar, we call it maturity, we tone down our dreams, we call it being humble, but there’s a difference between being grounded and being buried. We begin to believe that asking for more is greedy, that having standards is too demanding. That expecting respect is too much, so we shrink, not because we want to, but because it feels safer than being let down again.

The currency of compromise: 

A coupon is still currency, but it's a far cry from value, and when we measure love, success, worth, in scraps and half-efforts, we teach the world what we’re willing to accept.

We trade our self-respect for approval. We exchange boundaries for belonging. We bargain with our worth and often come up short.

The hidden poverty of low expectations:

You don’t feel the emptiness at first, not when it’s masked by consistency, attention, or routine, but over time, the deficit grows, a quiet bankruptcy of the soul. You wonder why you feel unseen. Why your needs are never met. Why love feels more like tolerance than celebration. And the answer is there, buried in compromise: You accepted cents when you were always worth gold.

Conclusion: 

There is nothing noble about lowering your expectations to make others comfortable. There is no medal for tolerating less than what your soul needs to thrive. You are allowed to want more. To ask for reciprocity. To refuse coupons when you know the value of your heart, your time, your truth. Raising your standards isn’t arrogance, it’s alignment. It’s remembering that self-respect is not negotiable.

And that love, real love, doesn’t demand that you shrink, so stop collecting coupons, when you were born to be paid in full. 

If this resonated with you, you might love a free short course worksheet, please email me for a list of topics to choose from, thank you.