The world is driven by marketing. When you interact with other people, you need to know how to sell yourself. This means that you would want to fill your resume with activities that look good.

• Instead of being focused on yourself, you craft an authentic story around yourself that is driven by a strategy.
• The downside is that its hard to separate your independence from what other people think of you, knowing that you need to market to them.

How can we focus on independently deciding our actions and quality of life, when so much of our lives are spent interacting with other people?

• Independence and marketing can coexist. Pick activities you find interesting, then strive for the awards. When you have to write the resume, work with what you already have.
• Start with the goals you need to reach your dreams, then work backwards. If the steps involve pleasing people, do them. If some steps require pursuing your own actions, then do them.