Rules of Everything

RULE 2

Your feelings are your own

Your level of confidence is largely about how other people see you – or rather, your perception of how others see you. You may not even be right about it, and indeed many people with low levels of confidence assume other people see them as stupid or useless or unattractive or incapable, when in fact that may not be what people are seeing at all. So you’re judging yourself on your judgement of other people’s judgement – and that’s a pretty flimsy reason to feel insecure about yourself. Besides, they’re probably not judging you at all – just worrying about what you think of them.

The trouble comes from allowing these supposed opinions to influence the way you feel. Even if someone tells you that you’re rubbish ...