How to Think Like a Cat - Stephane Garnier 2018
Your Cat Brims with Self-Confidence
’There is no such thing as an ordinary cat’
COLETTE
Self-confidence is one of a cat’s principal innate strengths, as we saw in that earlier chapter on pride and self-esteem.
Have you ever seen your cat adopt an introverted attitude, as if a little unsure of itself? Of course not. Your cat is proud. Your cat is the best, and knows it. As the old adage goes: ’You’re not the best when you think you are, but when you know you are.’ It’s a small difference, but an important one. And it’s the key to self-confidence.
As we have seen, self-confidence depends as much on the acceptance of who you truly are as it does on the pride you feel in what you are — commensurate with your talents or value system.
For example, when your cat approaches you of its own accord, it’s thinking, ’I know that you love me’, not wondering, ’Do you still love me today?’ This certainty is part and parcel of its aura, its charisma, its charm and its beauty. It is one of the reasons why you love your cat.
Far too many people suffer from a lack of self-confidence, while others overflow with it, sometimes for no apparent reason.
As you may have realised, all the chapters in this book overlap with each other, since complete self-confidence depends on an array of abilities — which we have deliberately broken down into separate parts in order to explore them better — but they all commingle and affect each other.
Yes, you must love yourself in order to be confident in yourself. You must be sufficiently independent and uncompromising, and have freed yourself from always wondering ’What will others think?’
Self-confidence is not some airy-fairy concept. It’s a set of strengths and abilities that your cat possesses. Learn to incorporate them one by one, and you will live and perform better each day.
People who have confidence in themselves are ’the centre of attention’, ’free’ and ’charismatic’. They are often quite happy. But they have learned over time how to cultivate all the attributes that have enabled them to develop this self-confidence.
Do as your cat does, and you will be you.
’Have confidence in yourself!’ would be a facile phrase for this sort of book. But I can promise you that cultivating the various aspects that form it, as your cat does, will gift you joys and victories in your life, making confidence grow within you naturally.