OK, picture this...

You are very accomplished in your career. You invested time and money to learn how to do what you do as well as you do it. You made some embarrassing mistakes when you were just an amateur, but you learned from them and improved your skillsets. You experienced rejection, lack of interest from gatekeepers, and underpayment for your time and services. You've failed many times--privately and publicly. But now…

Until more recently than I would like to admit, I used to count the empty seats at my theatre performances. The empty seats were a visual representation of the people I expected to support me who did not show up. I kept a tally because, in my mind, my closest friends and family were not meeting my expectations of what it meant to support me. Then I would spiral: