Insecurity is visible. It has both a tell and its own language. You can usually hear it before you see it.

Steve Magness once wrote, “If you have to tear others down to prove your worth, chances are you don’t really believe you’re worth much.”

Magness is right because that is insecurity in action.

However, confidence works differently. Confidence is often invisible. It has a language too, but that language is internal. True confidence is not loud, and it doesn’t need to boast.  

Confidence is the belief in yourself and your abilities. It’s that sense of assurance that you can prevail at whatever you put your mind to. 

But you don’t become confident because you say that you are. Confidence is earned. It’s built through repetition, and it’s strengthened by the quiet memory of past success.

I don’t know whether you are insecure or confident right now. But I do know this. You don’t have to pretend. The path forward is not pretending to be confident, it’s becoming confident.

Here is what I want you to remember today:

Insecurity does not disappear through affirmation. It fades through action.

The best part about insecurity is that it can become secure. And just because insecurity is loud today doesn’t mean it can’t be quiet tomorrow.

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