Friday, November 18, 2005

Ways in Which It Is Okay to Seem/Be Needy for Validation That Will Eventually Make You Actually Not Needy for Validation (Or At Least Not As Much)

1. Outright demand it. Do not resort to passive aggressive communication. Send your friends emails that demand they tell you how good your hair looks today or how funny you are.
2. Be cute; and be cute about demanding. You can get away with more obnoxious behavior when you can be cute about it.
3. Be funny about it. Straight desperation is icky and oozy and turns people off. If you are funny about it, at least you get people laughing and telling you how funny you are. Instant validation!
4. Hold up finished crafty projects and demand your roommate tell you they are pretty. Don't be shy about it.

And here is where it gets all self-helpy...be prepared...

5. After a while, learn to believe people when they tell you about the cute and the funny that you are and back off a little. It is tiring to only ever validate!
6. Eventually, you'll be able to validate yourself. And be right about the good stuff you are saying!
7. In time, you can find yourself to be more cute and funny than other people think you are! This is called zen self-realization.

3 comments:

Kate said...

You are the Queen of the List Posts. Nice way to turn this self-help thing on its ear!

nanni said...

This is an excellent post!

And in our place, when someone finishes a project (or a part of a project they feel the need to share) it is required that all in the room say a cheeful "Yay!" as encouragement.

Mary said...

for the love of blog...post something else already! Sheesh!