Confidence

There’s a special kind of frustration reserved for the moments when you’re trying your absolute hardest and it backfires. What she’s actually responding to isn’t how hard you’re trying — it’s whether you need the outcome to go a certain way. Confidence isn’t the absence of nerves, and it isn’t a performance you put on for her. It’s the quiet, steady sense that you’re okay regardless of how she responds.

This section is about the difference between confidence and its two most common impostors: nervousness you’re trying to hide, and effort you’re using to compensate for it — plus the deeper issue underneath both: confidence that isn’t consistent enough to be trusted.