Your confidence renewal plan

As the pressure to 'begin again' reaches its peak, many of us feel anything but ready. Sally Saunders discovers why confidence dips — and how small acts can help us rise again.

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The moment my confidence ran out

How a grey winter morning taught me that confidence isn't lost, it's spent and that means I can replenish it again...

It was one of those mornings that felt paused between seasons steel skies, pavements slick with rain, everything already exhausted. I was meant to be heading into London to carry out an interview I was so excited about, the kind of opportunity that, once upon a time, used to light something up inside me. But that morning, I couldn't get dressed.

It sounds trivial. It wasn't.

Every outfit felt wrong.

Too tight, too loose, too not me. I pulled clothes from hangers until the room was littered with indecision - a soft avalanche of fabric and frustration.

When I finally caught sight of myself in the mirror, I barely recognised the woman staring back.

Her face looked drawn; her posture uncertain. I remember thinking, Where did she go - the woman who used to stride into newsrooms without a second thought? By the time I left the house, late and flustered, my chest felt tight with something I couldn't name.

On the train, watching the grey blur of winter trees slide by, it came to me. It wasn't vanity. It was disorientation - a subtle but seismic loss of self-trust. Somewhere along the way, my confidence had slipped quietly out of the door.

Later that week, I spoke to Dr Claire Kaye, a GP turned executive coach who specialises in helping women rebuild confidence in midlife.