My suggestion for this, and I'm no expert, is to find a mentor - whether its related to school or to your career. Find someone whose opinion you trust, not someone that will tell you what you want to hear.
Don't use this person as a crutch but as someone you can learn from. Learn how to encourage yourself. Learn how to recognize your successes. Learn where you could be doing better and focus on making those improvements. You don't need someone to lead you by the hand but someone that can start by pointing you in the right direction, thereby teaching you how to find that direction yourself.
You do NOT want to replace your need for your wife's validation with that of another. You NEED to learn to validate yourself and your actions on your own.
Find a mentor and learn, do not find someone to stroke you.
Well I really trust and honor the opinion of my in-law, especially my mother in-law. They both are very intelligent, caring and successful individuals. They have taught me so much from the time that I have known them. Other than them I really do not have anyone to look up to. I mean my family has never backed me up and most of my friends all just want to drink and party and don’t prepare for the future. I’m 24 and I act like I’m 34. Maybe that is my problem, maybe I need to act like a 24 year old would. I never was surrounded by people would I could really talk to or people who would push me to be better. That is just the way my life has been…until I meet my W. She would always tell me what I needed to hear but also try to point me in the right direction. Maybe I could find someone else to be my mentor, but I do not know who that would be..
