From 'settled' and 'the one' I'm clearly not taking the same meanings as some other people on this thread.

The guy I married in my mid 20s was hansome, charming, committed, faithful, high-earning, intelligent, funny, a good lover and we had a lot of common interests and cultivated more together - he could say pretty much the same about me. But I don't think we were ever 'the one' for each other. We were both, in fact, on the rebound and chose partners who were, in many ways, the opposite of the people we were still getting over. I think he 'settled' for me but needed someone with a closer background to his own. At least that's where I felt the tensions coming from. I think I 'settled' for him but needed someone less insecure and controlling. We were both willing to compromise on stuff that is actually more important to a healthy relationship than all the (nice but unnecessary) stuff listed at the top of this paragraph.

That's what I mean by settle. I don't think I am deserving of anything in particular - but I am so much more aware of what I can live with and what I can't, what compromises I can make and what I can't - and what I can expect of another person. Saying I 'settled' is not saying that I was better than him.