Neighborhood Church

Many of us are Approval Addicts.

Sometimes we get so tangled up in wanting others to like us that we forget who we really are.

You may be craving too much external validation if you find yourself doing the following:
• Feeling guilty about setting boundaries with others.
• Overachieving, at the expense of your own wellbeing, in an attempt to earn praise from others.
• Struggling to make decisions on your own without someone else’s approval.
• Saying “yes” to things you’d prefer saying “no” to so that you can maintain approval from others.
• Struggling to disagree with or challenge others due to fear of being judged or abandoned.
• Continually comparing yourself to others and feeling inferior.
• Becoming emotionally distressed when you’re not the center of attention.
• Punishing yourself for not being “chosen” or acknowledged in contexts such as friendships, school, and at work.
• Fabricating or exaggerating life circumstances to gain sympathy from others.

Social media fuels the fire of our desire for approval.

When we can’t find the love and acceptance we crave, we will go anywhere to find it.

Three Strategies for Approval Addicts:
• Posturing
• Pretending
• Pleasing

Posturing is the art of positioning oneself in a way that's painstakingly designed to impress others.

Pretending is adopting beliefs, interests, or even entire personalities that aren't truly our own, just to fit in or be liked by others.

The vast majority of us go to our graves without knowing who we are. We unconsciously live somebody else's lives or at least somebody’s expectations for us and this does violence to ourselves, our relationship with God, and ultimately to others.
Pete Scazzero

People pleasing is going above and beyond to accommodate others, often at the expense of our own needs and desires.

Jesus invites us to step into a fearless lifestyle of radical authenticity.

Embrace your identity in Jesus.

• Let go of what people think
• Let go of perfectionism
• Let go of the need for certainty
• Let go of comparison
• Let go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth
• Let go of anxiety as a lifestyle
• Let go of self-doubt and “supposed to”
• Let go of being cool and “always in control”

Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
Brennan Manning