In well-meaning attempts to boost our confidence ahead of challenging moments, people often try to draw our attention to our strengths: our intelligence, our competence, our experience.But this can –...

Faced with challenges, we often leave the possibility of success to others, because we don’t seem to ourselves to be anything like the sort of people who win.

We tend to fear being an idiot as a terrible, remote possibility. This keeps us anxious and unsettled.

Our societies have advanced tendencies to label certain people ‘winners’ and others – logically enough – ‘losers’.

We almost all have a character inside our minds whom we might call the inner critic.

There is a danger of over-investment in the idea of ‘success’. It’s natural to want to do well-enough around work.

What holds us back from being more confident at work is often a sense that we are fundamentally different from those who succeed.

To boost our confidence ahead of challenging moments, well-meaning people often try to draw our attention to our good sides: our intelligence, our competence, our strength.

Many of us walk the earth with a feeling that, in order to acceptable, we need to be something very special indeed.

One of our great fears – which haunts us when we go into the world and socialise with others – is that we may, in our hearts, be really rather boring.