The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know

by Katty Kay

“Indeed, often the people who are most compassionate toward others are the least forgiving to themselves.”

Self-compassion recognizes the folly of this. To take risks, we have to know that we won’t always win. Otherwise, we’ll either refuse to act or be devastated. Self-compassion isn’t an excuse for inaction—it supports action, and it connects us to other people, to being human, with all the strengths and the weaknesses that implies.

It occurred to us that genuinely confident women, perhaps genuinely confident people, don’t feel that they have to hide anything. They are who they are, warts and all, and if you don’t like it, or think it is weak to show vulnerability, too bad for you.