Lawrence Leshan once said, "The definition of 'normal' is someone I don't know very well." Are we trying to be normal, or are we being ourselves in this life. When we were children, our parents would say to us, "Oh, that's not like you to do such and such," and we would think, "Uh, oh, I'm not normal." And we would try to behave more normally from then on. It's interesting how people's images and opinions of us can sometimes cause us to shape our behavior. We try so hard sometimes to fit in, to be liked, to win approval. But achieving outer approval does not give us inner peace or fulfillment. John Quincy Adams, second president of the U.S., indicated in his diaries that, regardless of his public achievements, inwardly his life had been a disappointment to him. Perhaps we can release our concern for outer approval and really begin to trust our inner convictions to guide us to a life of value and serenity.