A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval – Mark Twain

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval: In today’s thought of the day, I’d like to represent an old quote. Please forgive the gender bias in this quote. For the purpose of this discussion, I’d like to focus our attention on being comfortable with your own approval.

Discussions in this post revolve around self-confidence, belief and approval and the unfortunate conditioning of trying to please everyone in society. Hopefully, as we unpick these challenges in this quote analysis, I’d love to hear your views and stories on how you’ve won over these limiting conditions.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval

Let’s start off with the meaning of this quote. I’m fascinated by this part of social conditioning in all of us.

• What makes you and I think something is good enough?
• Why are we trying to become something – is it about being respected by our peer group?
• And what if we don’t live up to the standards set by people around us
• Shouldn’t life just be about you and your vision?

As I write these bullet points, I’m immediately thinking about my belief systems. How is my self-confidence defined? Whom am I trying to impress and be approved by? Having said everything, I still keep coming back to myself as the source of all these emotions and thoughts. Nothing around me can be defined without my approval. Sure, there might be some facts, but even they are subject to my own filter and viewpoint.

Identifying your value set and approvals

Honestly, I think it is a complex process to understand who you are as a person. Equally, it is a beautiful process. Isn’t it fascinating to know how you’re shaped and unpick which of these definitions benefit you? It also gives you a tremendous opportunity and choice to throw away some beliefs which don’t benefit you at all.

You might recall that I’d previously engaged in a discussion about how to build self-confidence. As much as I enjoyed writing that article, I still question myself about the definition of it. Surely, there is a part about you defining who you are, where your values lie and deciding what’s most important to you. The rest is a mere process of how you go about building your self-confidence.

I can see that most of my new articles are gravitating towards mindfulness – perhaps this is because I’m now quite bowled over by my own narcissism and knowing my own mind! Humour aside, I’m really curious about your thoughts on self-confidence and how you define it.

With that, I leave you with this lovely quote from Mark Twain:

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval

– Mark Twain

Useful Articles:

• Quotes about confidence – Goalcast (External Link)
• How to train the skill of self-confidence