“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”~ Mark Twain

We often hear that we should try to be comfortable with our decisions; we should live our life the way we feel is better for us. As writers we were often advised to write the story of our heart, write what we like not what the market trends require.

Many of us pretend we don’t care about the opinion of others. And yet we were raised with many rules imposed by morality and good behavior. As children we had to please our parents, teachers. Often time our opinion didn’t count. We did things because we had to or because we wanted to please someone.  As we grew up in life, we rebelled and started saying, “I’ll do it my way.”—Where is Frank Sinatra and his “I did it my way”?

Now that we have established ourselves in life and career, in family and society, can we honestly say we don’t care about the opinion of others? Or are we still trying to please others above us?

As writer’s do we let judges’ comments shatter our desire to try? Do we let rejection letters destroy our dream of becoming authors? Do we let reviews shake our pride in our books?

When we care too much about the acceptance or approval of others, we give our power away.

Terry Cole-Whittaker said, “The key to be true to yourself, is to stop living to try to please other people.”

And yet we strive to get our boss’s approval; we submit non-stop to attract an editor’s acceptance; we improve our writing to keep our fans’ interest.

Whose opinions really matter for you?  How do you reconcile your desire to do what you want with your survival in society?

WEDDING SURPRISE is book 4 in the Holiday Babies Series

It is  also part of two wedding boxes:

WEDDING ON MAIN STREET

and  TEN BRIDES FOR TEN HEROES