🧠Weekly MindSweep No. 176 | Manage Your Mind | 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…

🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!

👉 Click here to Listen

In the MindSweep this week:

1. Curated Conversation with curated GIF’s & puns (for your entertainment).

2. Jamie’s Second Brain Corner: Links to references. Need a map? I’ve got you!

3. What’s I’m Reading - Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

4. Collaborations with Terri Hamilton (Thursday) & Shannon Giordano and the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce

5. My face 💜 and a link to schedule your free consultation.

Stop Hitting Refresh: Stock Your Own Validation Shelves

In Sophia’s voice from the Golden Girls:

Picture it! Framingham, Massachusetts, 2020- Jamie—AirPods in, latte out, inhaling every “Six-Figure Secrets” podcast like it was oxygen.

My Notes app was a scroll of neon highlighter graffiti, and my iPhone photos were stocked full of screenshots of what other business owners did to find success:

• Post on Social Media 3 × daily

• Optimize email funnels. Lead magnet a must.

• “Network authentically” (whatever that means)

Yet every time I hit send on a proposal, I’d yank the “refresh Gmail” like a lever, praying for the ding of client approval. Silence didn’t just sting; it confirmed the inner monologue:

The gurus were right—you’re not cut out for this.

via GIPHY

Let’s sweep the brain…

🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!

👉 Click here to Listen

Why Your Brain Treats Praise Like GPS in a Fog

Your ventral striatum—the brain’s UPS depot—loves external validation because each “You nailed it!” delivers a fat box of dopamine labeled “CONFIDENCE”

Creative brains, however, have a quirky loading dock:

• Overflow: Dopamine spills so fast you’re instantly chasing the next hit.

• Mis-file: Wins don’t fully register, so victories feel hollow.

That’s neurobiology, not a character flaw.

But it explains why we end up parked outside the warehouse, waiting for trucks that may never arrive.

Unless we learn to stock our own shelves first.

via GIPHY

Fire the Guru’s

Fast-forward four years and several miles of neuroscience nerd-outs later. I stopped crowd-sourcing my confidence and started running tests:

• Weekly MindSweep emails—done, rain or crickets.

• “No, thanks” to clients misaligned with my growth values.

• “Good enough” drafts shipped before perfect could ruin them.

Result? My inner loading dock finally runs on a predictable schedule. Self-trust feels…weirdly peaceful.

And, you can too.

Become Your Own Validation Supplier

What to do: Notice

• The “I Noticed” Journal: Document one micro-moment daily where you caught yourself doing something right. No confetti cannons, just a whisper: “I noticed I hit ‘send’ without over-editing.”

• Why it works: These moments train your brain to spot its own worth, like building dopamine-producing mini-factories.

The “Director’s Commentary” Trick:

What to do: Practice

• Pretend you’re narrating your workday like a documentary. When you feel the validation itch (“Why haven’t they replied?!”), pause and voice-over: “Here, the entrepreneur acknowledges her anxiety but chooses to trust her craft.”

• Why it works: This creates psychological distance, turning cravings into curiosities.

Validation Redirect

What to do: Action

• When praise arrives:

  1. Breathe.

  2. Ask, “Did I already know this?”

  3. If yes, file it as confirmation, not permission.

• Why it works: This keeps external applause in the “nice to have” column instead of the “must have” column.

via GIPHY

You’re the Mapmaker Now

Last month, I found my old MindSweep Map, the one crammed with advice from every podcast and book. The margin notes screamed, “TRY THIS!” “Follow exactly!”

But the plans that actually succeeded? The messy ones on the outside where I’d scribbled: “This feels right. Let’s try this and see.”

Your brain isn’t malfunctioning; it’s a rebellious cartographer!

• Neuroplasticity means that every time you pause to ask, “What do I think?” before asking, “What will they think?” you’re rewiring the internal map, which will reflect in your business.

• Neuroplasticity doesn’t demand perfection. It asks for repetition. The more you notice your small acts of courage, the more your brain will say, “Oh! We’re the kind of person who does brave things. Let’s do more!”

You’re not chasing validation. You’re architecting it.

Yes, the validation trucks will still roll in. You’ll greet them with a nod: “I appreciate the delivery, but my shelves are already stocked.”

via GIPHY

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My questions for you this week :

• Think back to a recent compliment you received: did it confirm something you already knew or fill a gap you hadn’t noticed? How does that distinction change its impact on you?

• Which shelf in your personal “validation warehouse” is looking a little bare right now, and what micro-habit could you start this week to stock it yourself?

Reply and share with me!

Let’s discuss ways I can support you and your business.

Ready to Rewire with a Co-Pilot?

If your brain’s loading dock still looks like a traffic jam of half-unpacked validation crates, let’s clear the lanes together.

• What we’ll do:
  

  • MindSweep Map your neural GPS: spot the thought loops hijacking your confidence.

  • Install micro-habits: daily “I Noticed” wins that train dopamine to stick.

  • Run live experiments: ship imperfect work, analyze results, repeat—until self-trust is your default operating system.
    

• Why it works: Neuroplasticity loves repetition and social reinforcement. Working 1-on-1 gives your brain both: structured practice and a creative consultant (hi, it’s me 🙋🏻‍♀️) mirroring back your progress in real time.

• Next step: Reply “MAPMAKER” to this email—or book a free 30-minute MindSweep Mapping Chat!

Because you deserve a business that’s stocked with confidence before the delivery trucks even arrive.

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Are you a like-hearted entrepreneur ready for support? Let's connect.

Book a free consultation.

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Jamie’s Second Brain Corner:

[X] Did someone say MindSweep MAP?! Learn more about my Personalized MindSweep Mapping Process

[X] Follow Chickbook Creative on Substack!

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Where to find me

MONDAY: 8 am - Curated Conversation - Zoom

Changing the world, one Monday Morning at a time. Learn more + Sign Up for a Monday morning reminder!

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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.

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Collaborations!

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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!

Sign up

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In other news…

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