The world has defined an established system of "right" decisions and actions that will lead to success, and who doesn't want success? And, for people-pleasers, following this system creates opportunities for external validation, something we crave deep in our souls. But always doing the "right" things, as defined by others, has a way of burying our true passions under layers of expectations and "shoulds."
A tension is created. We can do the right things and receive validation, or do the unright things which lean into our passions but risk upsetting people in our lives.
Steve Fredlund is a life-long people pleaser who developed a deep internal dependence on external validation. But even after discovering this, he spent decades continuing to do what made other people happy, unwilling to take the steps needed to define and live the life he truly wanted. Now, at the age of fifty-three, Steve knows what it takes to do the unright thing, to follow his passions, and to not let his need for validation pull him back into a life focused on meeting the expectations of others.