As unfair as it sounds, we all have that one person whose validation can change the course of our confidence, thoughts, beliefs – basically our life. Why unfair you ask? Think about the amount of control this someone has in our day-to-day life! If this said person doesn't support us, we easily question our self and easily lose faith and confidence. Having said that it’s natural and normal to want this external validation. The reason I say it’s unfair because sometimes it shakes and crumbles the very foundation that make us special and different from one another.

I remember talking to a client who had a brilliant idea about this business she wanted to start, she had this impressive plan and all she needed to do was get started. But no one in her immediate circle of known and loved ones felt that way. She was heartbroken and cried. She wanted to quit her job and become a painter. She was very talented and the way she felt about painting made her face glow and her eyes sparkled. But having no validation she not only dismissed her idea but called it “impossible and stupid”

She wallowed for a while. The next time we met she couldn’t shake that idea away. She kept asking, “how can I convince them that this idea is great and will work?” The truth was, it wasn’t about them and that’s what I told her. I asked her to think and list of all the reason she should get started that had nothing to do with the people who didn’t support her idea. If she could muster a few good reasons there was still a chance she could do it. Get started on her dream. She did!