Every man is running an audition. Most of them could not name the judge.
He performs competence at work, steadiness at home, and ease everywhere else, and underneath it he is waiting on a verdict that never arrives. The rules he is measured against were never written down, they contradict each other, and that is not an accident.
Provide, and expect nobody to notice what it costs. Be strong, but not in any of the ways that make people uncomfortable. Take a risk and get called reckless. Play it safe and get called weak.
A man who lives to satisfy those rules will never satisfy them, because they were not written to be satisfied. They were written to keep him managing everyone else's comfort instead of answering to God.
The way out is not confidence. Confidence is often approval seeking that has gotten good at it. The way out is a change of judge, and the verdict that matters was settled before you did anything to earn it.
This is the most personal of the seven and it goes last on purpose. It only lands for a man who already trusts the voice telling him.
