Believe it or not, you’re getting validated by someone (or by yourself) all the time. Consciousness and Validations are intertwined in many ways that your brain can’t comprehend. Validations in some way shape your behaviour and important characteristics of your life. For example, longing for your parent’s validations can turn you into a conventional, orthodox person and your risk-taking abilities, perceptions are capped not by your ambitions but by your parents.

As you grow up and are being amalgamated into the societal structures, the source of your validators changes and again this might stir up your personality. According to the mimetic theory proposed by Gerald, models implant the desire and this desire carves out a course to follow in your life. Models can be conflated with Validators in some scenarios, but there is a serious distinction between them. In the case of models, you want to mimic them, whereas you appease the validators. This is a subtle yet important demarcation. The models who mould your desires may not be even aware of your existence, the classic case of this being the brand influencers. Validators, altogether, live and occupy different parts of your brain than their counterparts(Models).

During the course of my life, the source of validators has changed from time to time. Parents, family, friends, inner society, professors, colleagues, managers and to be continued. Up and until friends were validators the journey was good and awesome. But once it got up to the point of inner society, all hell broke loose. I am still amazed at how I managed to surmount various stages of validations. That doesn’t mean my validators ceased to exist. No, new ones will be born. This validators phenomenon isn’t universal. I’ve observed some of my friends where they themselves are the validators. Although they are far and few between, validating one’s own self is no less than a superpower these days.

So, who are your validators?