Test: What will help your confidence shine through?

Being in touch with your values and consciously striving to live your life in line with them creates a strong foundation for quiet confidence to grow and flourish. However, we can drift off course at times when we’re overwhelmed by life or say yes to things before we’ve really had a chance to think them through.

Life is ever-changing, so boundaries do need to be flexible, but it’s hard to communicate quiet confidence without an anchor of knowing what you believe in and what helps you thrive. Our boundaries can become blurred if we put other people’s needs way before our own or feel anxious about letting anyone down or making them unhappy.

It may be that being there for other people is core to your sense of purpose. But if, deep down, you also feel resentful or taken advantage of, it will impact your personal presence. Opting for ‘super nice’ might seem like a safe bet, but at times, it can come across as inauthentic or even irritating.

Being firmer about your boundaries may feel hard at first, but ultimately, you won’t get the respect that quiet confidence generates until you respect yourself. When you catch yourself in people-pleasing mode, pause and ask yourself: am I operating from my best self?