Almost everything I do is either out of a desire to so, or because I have to do it. As a kid, I was already too stubborn to worry much about validation, getting old (now nearing my 60s) did not help much in that regard.

Say, writing (and reading) is something I do because I love doing it and, to grossly summarize, I could not care less about people (dis)agreeing with what I write (edit: and read). I mean, I do care but only in the sense that I will listen to their remarks and objections when they they have some, while I don't care about their feelings and emotions or whether they like what I write (and read), or not. Compared to, say, filling my tax form, which is another form of writing for which I do care a lot about how it will be read and received... but is also not something I write out of passion :p