Where's Your Validation Coming From?
Last night I posted my 400th Instagram post.
And I got excited.
Why?
Because it meant I “showed up” 400 times.
And it got me thinking…
We often admire the outcome rather than the action.
For example, we say “good job” for a high test result, not “great job studying.” We say “nice body” instead of “nice job doing lots of sets and reps.”
And in the context of podcasting?
Getting lots of podcast downloads is a byproduct of publishing a lot of episodes and telling people about the show.
We have been trained to reward the outcomes. And outcomes should be rewarded. Having lots of successful outcomes is great. They show that the work you’re putting in is actually getting a result in the world.
But the actions that create the outcomes are arguably just as important. And maybe if we can rewire our brains to get validation from ourselves for that… we could be in a better place (to get better outcomes).
Put more succinctly…
You can’t be beaten when the source of your validation is the thing you can control.
Don’t get validation just from your nice body, get them from completing your workout.
Don’t get validation just from acing the test, get it from studying for it too.
Don’t get validation just from having 26,583 followers, get it from showing up 400 times on the platform.
PS Is this turning into a daily email?
Let me know if you’re enjoying these by replying below. I’m debating turning this into a Monday-Friday thing if it’s useful for you to get my thoughts. It’s certainly helpful for me to jot them down.