What's Stopping You Being More Confident?

7

COURAGE AND EXTRAVERSION

Mettle, nerve, guts, grit, chutzpah, daring, spunk: however you want to label it, courage is something that the confident seem to possess in spades and the under-confident seem to lack. In fact, it can seem like their defining quality – allowing confident people to advance while the under-confident hesitate, and therefore languish in frustration and feelings of inadequacy.

Yet courage is a confusing concept. For instance, many people think I’m brave because I’ve the courage to do things (such as write books on my insecurities). Others, meanwhile, see this as merely foolish – action without strategy that could be harmful to my long-term well-being. So how can we discern courage, which is a noble quality that supports ...