A Big Problem With How The Media Portrays Confident Women

This is a journey that doesn’t stop, either, Weiner points out. While many people tend to use certain benchmarks — like the number on a scale or how many zeros are in their paychecks — there is no finishing line for confidence.

“We often think, ‘Well, I get to be confident and then I get to stop,’” Weiner says. “A lot of us have that thought in our head, right? ‘If I just lose weight, if I marry this person, if I have this job, if I have this outfit, if I have this amount of money in the bank account, then I will feel great about my life.’”

What’s missing from this short-sighted outlook, Weiner continues, is the important, ongoing path of self-discovery.

“That’s something that we don’t talk about. Why? Because it’s not easily contained in a 20-second sound bite. It’s not easily addressed in a commercial,” she says.

Instead, true confidence comes not from the neatly packaged results that we often see around us, but from being able to embrace, acknowledge and make peace with all that it took to get there.

“How do you make peace with your process, your individual process, your story, your body as is, your dreams as they are?” Weiner poses. “How do you make peace with that and how to you enjoy the process of getting to know who you are along this journey?”

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