There's an invisible pressure that you might not see, but you certainly feel that's pushing you

towards not being yourself. And it doesn't show up as some dramatic conversation or conflict

where someone's yelling at you and telling you, you can't be yourself. It's so much more subtle

than that, invisible, insidious.

It's actually a pattern that we buy into without even knowing it.

And instead of being that dramatic moment, it's more like death by a thousand paper cuts

where you're in that meeting and you have something to say and you tell yourself,

ah, now's not the time.

I don't think it's going to go well. Or maybe you do speak up, but then instead of being focused on

the other person, the content you want to share, your ideas, you're hyper focused on yourself

and how you're coming across. Did that sound right? Did I look okay? Am I impressive? Am I polished? Am I smart enough?

And often behind those questions is the answer, which is no. And we feel that doubt or that

discomfort, that unease. And this shows up in our social lives as well, in our relationships,

and it can start to be with us everywhere we go and we don't realize

that this is actually a pattern that's happening inside of me and there is a method to that

madness. I'm Dr. Aziz and this is the first episode of authentic confidence, which to put it as succinctly as possible, is the solution

to that madness.

It's the sanity.

Authentic confidence is you allowing yourself, you finding that core permission, that

inner authority to determine who you are, who you're allowed to be,

how you want to share on the most subtle levels, like what I want to say in this conversation,

what kind of joke do I want to make, what kind of facial expressions and how do I want to

...