The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

Some of what you have been taught to hide in yourself is strength wearing the wrong name. Stubbornness can be persistence, bluntness can be honesty, restlessness can be the thing that keeps you from settling for too little. The turn comes when you stop apologising for a trait and start aiming it at something worth doing.

Pick one quality you tend to excuse or conceal. Ask what it looks like at its best, and where that version would actually be useful. Then use it on purpose once this week, instead of letting it leak out sideways.