Who you are today is fleeting.

I’m paraphrasing a quote from David Epstein’s 2019 book Range.

The idea struck me at the moment but continued to grow in me over the last few days.

We often compare our current selves to the person we were five or ten years ago. Sometimes who we were back in high school or as a child.

How we’ve changed is far more noticeable over these longer time scales. This perspective causes us to miss the changes that happen in the short term.

Every encounter you have, with people, places and things, changes you. Every conversation with yourself or another, every time you walk into the grocery store, every time you smash your toe against the corner of a coffee table.

Regardless of how minor or insignificant they seem, every single moment affects us.

Who you were before you read this was a different person than you are now.

Every moment, every decision — everything you experience — changes you on some level.