I think we’d all like to believe that we don’t care whether anyone pays attention to us.  We’re heroically forging our own path, and if other people don’t care about what we’re doing or think it’s important, that’s just their loss.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, I think we’ll see that the reality is [...]

Many of us, in some way, are afraid of displeasing people.  Some of us, for instance, constantly worry that our superiors at work see us in a negative light.  Some of us fret over the possibility that our loved ones—whether they’re our families, intimate partners or friends—will abandon us.  Still others are in people-pleasing mode [...]