What makes one life cheerful, purposeful and energetic and another less so typically has nothing to do with intelligence or qualifications, but almost everything to do with the courage to try, the refusal to accept defeat, persistence in the face of obstacles, and ambition about what the future could hold for us. This is a book with an explicit and practical purpose: to take us through some exercises that will help us rediscover the confidence we all already have inside us but have neglected for too long out of habit, fear or misplaced modesty.

This book demonstrates that confidence is not a gift of the gods but a faculty we are all endowed with and that can flourish with the right kind of practice and encouragement. Here are exercises – practical, entertaining and most of all useful – that flex our confident faculties and guide us to greater effectiveness in our relationships, in our working lives and in our approach to ourselves. This is a tool to unlock our latent powers and help us become who we long, and deserve, to be.