Humility doesn’t mean you can’t say you’re good. It means you can also say where you’re not.

Modesty gets confused with denial, as though honesty about your own strength were a character flaw. The real quality is accuracy in both directions: being able to say what you do well, and being able to name where you fall down, with the same steadiness. One without the other is either boasting or hiding.

Try describing yourself to somebody this week with one real strength and one real weakness, in the same breath. No softening on either side. The pairing is what makes both halves believable, and it is easier to say than the carefully modest version.