During induction weekend in Cooperstown New York 2007, baseball hubby and I were to
attend a private red-carpet reception with a slew of Hall of Famers and other sports and Hollywood celebrities. Weeks before, I had agonized over what dress to wear and, as shallow as this sounds, I couldn't sleep at night trying to decide. Silly me.

The first dress I had selected from my “fancy” section of the closet was what I finally decided to wear, after trying on all of them a hundred times over. I had decided to trust my first gut instinct ~ a summer strapless white long dress with bold fuscia flowers.

One of my best friends Sue called me the next day while we were still in Cooperstown and left this message on my cell: "Where did you get that ugly dress? I knew I should
have gone shopping with you. Oh, and the TV cameras don't add 10 pounds, they add 20!"

I was mortified. I could not believe my decision turned out all wrong. Was my dress really ugly? What was I thinking? My confidence simply crumbled at the thought, even
though at the party, I felt good in the dress.

I had met Richard Gere in that dress!

Turned out Crazy Sue was joshing me. She had not seen us on TV and had no idea what dress I wore. It WAS funny, and I laughed along, although I could have smacked
her when she admitted the prank. What a goofster.

When I dwelt on my reaction, I realized something. Initially I had felt sure about a decision, had felt confident (even something as trivial as a dress choice) and yet I allowed another person to snatch that confidence from me in five seconds flat, and to negate me - all with a joking cell phone message.

How often do we allow others to do this to us? Trusting ourselves is sometimes hard. Too often we rely on others' opinions and advice, when actually, who knows best for us than us?

Author's Bio: 

Suzanne Molino Singleton is "Mrs. Singy: Married to Baseball," a column on the NY Yankees' YES NETWORK website. She also writes a weekly inspirational "think-out-loud" e-column called SNIPPETS on SNIPPETSinspiration.com. Suzanne is the wife of NY Yankees TV broadcaster, Ken Singleton, a former Baltimore Oriole. She can also be found on examiner.com as Baltimore's Inspirational Examiner.