Change Your Life with CBT

Chapter 10

Boosting your confidence and self-esteem

‘The experience of introspection shows ... that the negative emotions are transitory mental events that can be obliterated by their opposites, the positive emotions, acting as antidotes.’

Matthieu Ricard

An ex-Fleet Street editor once told me this story. He said every year when it was time to negotiate pay rises, the top male journalists would stride into his office, demand 10 per cent, a pension plan, a new top-range car and say they would ‘Walk and work for a rival’ if they didn’t get it. Meanwhile, the top female journos would either not come into his office and prefer to e-mail him or, if they did come in, sit down, chat for a while and then accept 5 per cent and be grateful. Few would ...