“We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.” (Page 28, Big Book)
Technical validation is the process of confirming that a technology, product, or system functions reliably, meets specified requirements, and operates correctly within its intended environment.
If I am performing work, it is valuable periodically to have one’s work reviewed by others in order to determine whether it is up to scratch and to identify improvements.
This form of validation—the objective establishment of value—is occasionally warranted.
Seeking validation from another person is quite another matter: it is not really validation in the technical sense I’m after but attention or praise, as an ego hit for its own sake or a short-acting antidote for ‘low self-worth’.
I experience low self-worth when I measure myself by material values (which can never be fully lived up to) or am falling short morally.
Rather than seeking validation, my job is to adopt the right values and then bring my behaviour in line with those values.
That removes the ‘need’ for ‘validation’.