How's your self-esteem? Take the quiz...

You enjoy a strong foundation of self-approval, which gets you through the tough stuff in love or in the workplace. You aren’t easily deterred by adversity or the carping of critics. Nobody can survive a total onslaught on their reputation, but you would be able to put up a fine show of resistance. You relish a challenge, say your piece and carry on regardless when lesser mortals wilt and fall. Your primary gift is optimism, which – although providing a less accurate picture of the world in some respects than pessimism – does at least have the benefit of keeping you open-minded. What’s more, the evidence from psychological studies suggests optimists have a much better time on the planet. The only note of caution I might sound is to remember that pride sometimes comes before a fall – don’t let hubris be your nemesis! If you realises that there are possible areas of uneven self-esteem, it might prove profitable to read the commentaries for the other scores for ideas about self-improvement.

You have uneven self-esteem: First, congratulations for answering the questions with what appears to be a high degree of honesty. Of course you could be hiding low levels of self-esteem, but you’re not claiming to suffer from excessive confidence. The way to improve your scores is to look at those answers where you ticked a seven and ask yourself whether you still cling to one or two outdated beliefs. If yours was a verbally negative childhood, for example, are you still behaving as if these statements were accurate? To raise your confidence levels as an adult you need to become your own best friend and supporter. Never apologise for being you. Instead of wondering what others think, deliberately say in your head: ‘I’ve done my best and that is good enough for me!’ Above all, try not to say ‘yes’ when you really want to say ‘no’. Slow down conversations by asking people to repeat themselves so you have enough time to choose your reply. Keep your voice up and sound confident, even if you don’t feel it, and say: ‘Thank you but no, I don’t want to do that.’

You have a double difficulty: you not only worry about what other people think of you, but you also overestimate the amount of time they actually spend doing this. The truth is that most people’s views are biased and should be taken with a large pinch of salt – and there’s scant evidence they are more interested in you than they are in themselves. Be careful you don’t fall into the trap of not enjoying the skills and talents you possess because you are so busy imagining what critics might say. Remember the four golden rules of self confidence: nobody’s perfect; we all make mistakes; we can’t make everybody like us and we wouldn’t be real if we could.