🧠Weekly MindSweep No. 175 | Mind Your Business | Validation
May 2025
Week 174: Curated Conversation: Validation
*Week 175: Mind Your Business: Validation
Week 176: Manage Your Mind: Validation
Week 177: What’s On My Mind: Validation
Let’s sweep the brain…
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In the MindSweep this week:
Curated Conversation with curated GIF’s & puns (for your entertainment).
Jamie’s Second Brain Corner: Links to references. Need a map? I’ve got you!
What’s I’m Reading - Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Collaborations with Terri Hamilton (Thursday) & Shannon Giordano and the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce
My face đź’ś and a link to schedule your free consultation.
How to Print Dopamine In-House
Last Wednesday, I waltzed into my annual physical with the swagger of someone who’d just discovered her dress had usable pockets. Twelve months earlier, my primary care doctor sat me down and delivered the “We need to talk about your weight” speech.
I took it seriously.
I worked with a nutritionist, swapped potato chips for roasted chickpeas (jury’s still out), and started learning more about what my body actually needs to stay nourished and healthy.
Forty pounds lighter, I strutted in like it was my own health-check premiere–imaginary flashbulbs popping, scale still warm from its standing ovation.
My doctor, apparently, had missed the memo that I was up for “Best Supporting Lifestyle Change.”
Not even a polite golf clap.
Not one word.
Let’s sweep the brain…
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👉 Click here to Listen
There was no “Wow,” no “You must feel fantastic,” not even the head tilt of professional curiosity. I left with a clean bill of health, a bewildering blend of pride, and new awareness.
As I drove home, it hit me:
My progress was still real, even though she didn’t acknowledge it.
And, I saw her missed opportunity. One simple “Look at you!” from my doctor could have deepened our rapport and nudged my motivation forward.
That’s when our theme clicked into place:
Depending on external validation is riding shotgun in your own car; you’re moving forward, but someone else is steering the wheel.
But whyyyyyy Jamie?
Prediction Error: Your creative entrepreneurial brain craves gold stars. It loves closing the gap between expected and actual feedback. When applause doesn’t come, the error signal flares, and interprets the silence as “Something’s wrong with me.”
Social-Survival Thinking: Thousands of years ago, tribal approval literally kept us alive. Today, the “tribe” is an inbox, a follower count, or—yes—your doctor’s raised eyebrow. It’s the same circuitry, just fancier packaging.
Whoooweeee, we’ve got some noticing and rewiring to do.
The upshot? Our brains aren’t dramatic—they’re efficient. They’ll always choose the fastest dopamine route, even if it runs through someone else’s opinion.
The work this week is to install a private on-ramp.
Your next product, painting, or program is not a referendum on your worth; it’s a wrapped present you’re offering the world. Sometimes the recipient tears it open and squeals. Other times, they shrug because the color isn’t their vibe.
That’s preference, not failure.
No sale? That’s a mismatched gift tag, not a verdict.
Lukewarm feedback? A cue to tweak the ribbon, not torch the whole idea.
Crickets in the comments? Evidence you shipped something, which outranks 99 percent of your Post-it-note dreams.
Call the non-hits what they are: missed takes. Treat every under-selling offer like a scene on the studio backlot: the concept is ready to film, the first cut just didn’t test well. So you yell “Reset!” move the camera two feet, and roll again—same script, sharper angle—no ego bruised.
Last week, we focused on noticing our applause cravings. This week, we hop into the director’s chair with five quick “reshoot” rewirings:
Daily Dailies — Run the footage. End each workday by jotting one scene you nailed—no embellishment, just fact (“Drafted proposal before 11 a.m.”). Neural payoff: Replays success and strengthens the striatum’s “I can do this” loop.
The Director’s Commentary — Narrate your genius.. Record a two-minute voice note explaining why today’s action matters to your bigger picture. Neural payoff: It links action to purpose, lighting up the medial prefrontal cortex (self-relevance HQ).
Gift-Tag Audit — Rename the rejects. List last month’s “meh” outcomes. Re-label each as “Missed Take #___” plus one tweak you’ll try next. Neural payoff: Shifts the amygdala from threat to experiment mode and boosts cognitive flexibility.
Validation-Diet Sprint — Unplug the applause.. Publish one thing this week and do not check stats for 72 hours. Use the freed-up dopamine to start on your next idea. Neural payoff: Weakens the cue to reward pathway tied to external metrics; strengthens intrinsic-motivation circuits.
Mirror Mentorship — Hire Future You. Write a pep letter from the version of you three years ahead—who’s already mastered today’s hurdle—and read it aloud each morning. Neural payoff: It activates default-mode and dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex networks, giving you built-in social support (with no extra human required).
Progress is still progress—even when the audience forgets to clap. For me to achieve my goals, I had to anchor my worth to my own metrics—effort, learning, alignment, not support from my doctor.
External ovations had to shift from oxygen to background music.
When I stepped off that exam-room scale, my body knew the truth long before my doctor’s silence.
Your business knows its own progress, too.
The market’s applause feels fantastic, but make sure your loudest cheering section is the one inside your head.
Hit reply with your “next take” plan!
P.S. Feel that dopamine itch to peek at your likes? Take three deep breaths, re-read your Daily Dailies, and let the brain chemistry recalibrate.
My questions for you this week :
If external praise suddenly vanished for a week, which personal metric (effort, learning, alignment, joy, etc.) would you use to measure your progress—and what would change about the way you work?
Where in your business do you still crave the validation of a metaphorical “doctor’s golf clap,” and what daily practice could train your brain to supply that applause internally first?
Reply and share with me!
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Jamie’s Second Brain Corner:
[X] Did someone say MindSweep MAP?! Learn more about my Personalized MindSweep Mapping Process
MONDAY: 8 am - Curated Conversation - Zoom
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What I’m reading
Intermezzo
Author: Sally Rooney
An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love.
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.
Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.
Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.
For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
Find it where you browse for books.
Collaborations!
Join us Friday, June 6th, at the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce for this two-hour interactive business community experience.
We'll discuss ways to cultivate business through Sales, Marketing, and Communication methods that support relationship building, showing up authentically, and connecting deeper with colleagues and the people you serve.
9-11 am - Open discussion, community support, brainstorming ideas
Join me in meeting business owners in our community. You'll leave with new tools to help you make connections and build your business!
Free; Registration is required: REGISTRATION.
Mindful Connections
Connecting like-hearted entrepreneurs to build relationships, offering support, understanding their passions, and sharing their names in rooms of opportunity.
Join us Thursdays, 12-1 pm EST.
12:00 - Take 5—a guided meditation with Terri Hamilton of Positively Terri to ground your week with peace and focus.
12:05-1 pm Round-table Share
Who you are
The gifts you bring to the world
Who you serve
The answer to a Curated question to spark conversation.
If you found this on the web, sign up to join us!
In other news…
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