Confidence is not about being certain. It is not about being loud or visible, nor is it about strength, success or control.

True confidence is quiet, residing in honesty and the willingness to face brutal truths. It is the refusal to look away from what needs to be done. It is about embracing doubt and moving forward despite it.

Our current moment should provide an opportunity for reflection, allowing us to acknowledge that what we are experiencing is not merely an economic, social, or political crisis, but something more profound and complex.

A confidence crisis.

But this is not a lack of confidence in the trains running to schedule, but something altogether more challenging to measure and make tangible. It is a loss of faith in one another, our shared future and the idea that people can still shape their society.

We have become cynical and disengaged, and there is a growing temptation to retreat into what feels comfortable, so that we might ignore what is inconvenient and troubling.

This is most apparent in the ever-creeping erosion of trust, like rust eating steel. We have lost confidence in public institutions, and more significantly, one another.

For this reason, the answer to this challenge will not come from an external body or leader, but rather from choices made by every household and every citizen.

This will require the application of individual effort and for sacrifices to be made. Of course, this is not what people want to hear in a culture that rewards consumption without effort and celebrates achievement without substance.

However, doing more and receiving less is precisely what we need to consider. And in grasping this, we can begin to believe that confidence is still possible.

But this is not the shallow kind that demands applause or quick fixes. It is something more authentic.

Something with an essence.

Something built through honesty, courage and the quiet decision to keep showing up.

Something that sacrifices, adapts and acts not just for personal gain, but for the greater collective good.

True confidence does not avoid discomfort, but steps into it with integrity. It does not insist on control and makes space for truth. True confidence knows we have agency to change our circumstances.

If we are to meet the challenges of our time, such as climate change, inequality, disconnection or distrust, we must develop this deeper strength. A strength that is concerned not with perfection, but presence. A strength that is not reliant on a single voice, but grows in every corner of a community willing to care.

Confidence begins there.