Confidence Quotes for Powerful Women.

“Fake it until you become it,” – I heard and read about it so many times but was never truly able to understand the meaning. The part about “faking” didn’t quite make any sense, and it was not appealing to me. Nevertheless, in social and professional situations I would quite often spot incredible confidence radiated by people, and then I would overhear that those confidence-radiating individuals were somewhat lost or knowing as much about what was going on as other lost people.

I’m tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.
Madonna

This idea about people with confidence came to me again in a dressing room of a local gym. The dressing room has comfortable areas where women can sit on a chair in front of a mirror, do their make-up, blow dry their hair, get ready for the time of the day they are heading into when they step out of the gym.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.
Maya Angelou

My idea of being in a gym dressing room is to sneak out of the shower to my locker, pet myself with the towel as soon as possible, jump into clothes, blow dry hair standing, without paying any attention to potions and lotions and hair oils that are sprayed and slathered on around me. The whole dressing room is actually filled with the pleasant smell of perfumes and lotions and hair spays that women use so indulgently and so artfully. So during one of those quick “dryings” and “jumpings” into my clothes, I happened to look into the mirror and see a women sitting on a chair with her make-up bag filled with toiletries, bottles of something on the counter in front of the mirror.

Women must learn to play the game as men do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

She was sitting on a chair leaning and taking her time to blow dry every single hair in a very passionate way. Her posture was so relaxed and confident that I felt envious of the way she held herself in this public gym dressing room. You see, from the way that woman was dressed I could absolutely not tell what profession she had and what status she enjoyed. She must have been a regular teacher, or a retired grandmother, or a supermarket worker or maybe a happy CEO of a company she built.

I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story—I will.
Amy Schumer

What stunned me is the confidence she had in her gestures and the way she was blow drying her hair. It seemed to be such a particular moment; she seemed to be so relaxed and content with where she was in her life, and she was such an opposite of me. I would not imagine taking such a time to dedicate to my hair and bathroom pleasantries. I would die of anxiety about the things I had planned to do or that had boiled in my ever-working mind. I would ignore the present moment, and I would not appreciate being in a moment and enjoying just staying there and just concentrating on making my hair beautiful.

 Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Such a strange observation.

What I have learned in teaching is that confidence is the number one attribute to have because confidence about what you know, what you want, what you are eligible to, what you deserve and what you become will lead you to a better version of you. I would say confidence makes life less complicated, saves one’s sanity, gives fewer options to avoid analysis paralyzes. Becoming confident is like training a muscle. It is training a mental muscle regardless of the experience and expertise. You can be a CEO in your 50s and still feel nervous about presenting at the global forum of entrepreneurs. You can be an experienced teacher dealing anxiously with a new group of newcomers at the beginning of the school year. You can be a principal with shaking hands giving a speech to 200 teachers. You might be all in sweat and drowning in anxiety, but the confidence and wearing it like your best suit is what will bring you to the next level and get the message across.

 You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.

Brigham Young

Confidence is a precious possession. I envy people who show confidence. I envy teachers who look confident. I envy anyone who has this magic muscle. I guess the lesson is no one is born with it. You gain it in a battle. You train it. You make it yours. And to the teacher out there, stop feeling desperate, anxious, emptied. Make confidence your goal. Start feeling it. Train yourself. Fake it first. Radiate it. It becomes contagious.

 She believed she could, so she did.

Unknown 

The second lesson I have learned is that confidence is not born out of difficulties. Confidence is born in quiet, cozy, warm places like in that dressing room of a gym. It’s when you feel indulgent about pampering your body and your soul that confidence sprouts. It’s the feeling of happiness about where you are and what makes you feel content. It’s the care of your body and soul that produces the gift of confidence that radiates. It’s knowing who you are and where you are going.

 The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.

Yves Saint-Laurent

So to all of you, give yourself a gift of confidence, nurture it, show it, fake it, own it, whatever makes you unique and happy!